mba

You can come work under me.

Not to bust your balls but given the # of areas you have been considering have you ever thought that maybe you came off as not having any idea what you want to do to recruiters? ---- Short story is a recruiter at a top MM told me after I didn't get an offer the reason I was ding'd was because they were not sure I wanted to be in banking as opposed to S&T, at the time they were correct as I had no clue what I wanted, when I stepped back and read into what each career entails, I decided IB was right for me.....there are a lot of boutiques out there looking for candidates at this time of year, have your considered sacrificing some pay just to get your foot in the door? After a year im sure if you network and have all the credentials outlined you'd be able to transfer into a larger shop.

3) definitely do this, especially if you have nothing else on your plate. Level 1 is not difficult if you studied finance in undergrad

4) there are "random back office jobs" and there are back office jobs that offer decent opportunities for someone in your position. I wouldn't rule this option out just because of a general stereotype.

if all else fails, go be a navy seal. that can't hurt your resume.

Change your name immediately.

Don't do L1 its a waste of time. Especially in this environment its what everyone is turning to in order to make themselves more marketable while not realizing that that time is better spent networking, chasing down leads, and practicing your non-regional diction

Back Office Job = better than no job.

Plus it opens you up to networking to guys in FO.

If you're really that insecure about having it on your resume then just leave it off. At least you're getting paid and you have an opportunity to meet people.

damn bro, sorry to hear about your situation.

you might want to check out consulting, or some other areas of employers such as corp finance, etc.

btw, what major did you pursue at your grad school? If you did MSF, and didn't get FO in finance, that really sucks.

Raise some capital, start your own business and be your own boss.

Get you CFA or whatever you want to do to help pad your resume in the mean time...

A little entrepreneurial experience will never hurt your resume as long as you maintain your network.

Trust us... you'd rather be unemployed with zero hope.

Am I missing something? She said she just finished her masters... why is everyone recommending more school? It's obviously not working out too well.

Your best bet is to talk to your finance professors first if they know anyone at boutique or MM firms. Talk to some of your friends who got offers and try to set up time to meet with them.

You're just jealous of my e-game.

Teach me your ways!

Damn at least somebody did.

You don't want back office?

Great back office doesn't want you too. As a matter of fact no body wants you. Otherwise,you would have gotten an offer.

Some people would kill to just get a job but the shit head is being capricious and he can't even afford his MBA yet.

A job is better than no job

We might have found an canidate to be my assistant.

I understand its tough - but I can't help being pissed off by people like you who whine about lack of "luck" and being "cheated" out of a job.

My girlfriend graduated from a master at LSE and it took her 1 year to find a job in IBD - in the meantime she worked at Starbucks while networking like hell and applying to every single place in Europe, including places like Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. She got eventually got a 1 year placement at a BB (a few weeks short of getting kicked out of the country because of Visa status) but she didnt get an offer at the end of it. Again unemployed for 6 months. Then she got a spot at a small boutique (where I met her), later moved to a BB and 4 years on she works for the largest PE fund in Europe.

So my advice:
1. Stop whining and start behaving like a man
2. Start networking your ass off, and prepare for interviews and if you're so good as you say you are, you'll get the job you want. In the meantime, settle for something less i.e. BO or MO job, or unpaid internships in FO if you can afford it
3. Yeah its a recession but trust me it was 10x worse back in 2008, and people still managed. Stop finding excuses.
4. Tell you a secret about life - its not a box of chocolates. you can't always get want you want easily and sometimes, you will need to settle for something less glamourous or something you don't like as a first step to your dream job.

That said, good luck.

What rothy just said is crucial because we are dealing with a work situation that is specifically against us.
Networking is the one and only thing that you can control....the more people you know the more likely it is for you to make it. I have literally built a network within ms, gs, cs, jpm, and brock all from scratch....I absolutely had none to start with and now i have over 30 connections there that are all vp, ed, md status....built it all within 5 months.....the point of all this is that you need to make your own "luck" and "opportunity"

He will have to give up because he will never see what he is looking for. At least not in the next six months.

He wants a FO position but no FO wants him.
Now he needs to settle with a McDonald job, earn some cash instead of being a couch potato and network to get a job.

Take up the offer you have on hand. Trust me, people would worry more about the gap on your resume rather than whether you worked FO/BO/MO.

I graduated three years ago and I am still unemployed. Have been supporting myself through doing various IBD placements. Took alot of networking. None of them led to an offer (for various reasons). My work permit situation didn't help either - I have to pretty much go for the large well-established firms who were in a position to sponsor me.

I can't tell you the number of sleepless nights I have worrying about my career/financial situation. I had the opportunity to work in a much less glamorous job, but I passed it on. Obviously, I wish I hadn't done that now. So, think twice about turning anything down.

I have pretty much ditched m&a, and focusing on other things now (think I have a month before I have to leave the country!). But it took awhile for me to reach that state of mind.

Good luck anyway.

rastarocket: nice ending to that story. hopefully something nice like that happens!

wow. this story is amazing...

most times, when somebody said "we liked you but had a better candidate", its because people are being politically correct (especially in the UK). Ask them what your weaknesses were (more diplomatic way of asking why they didn't take you) and you can try to work and focus on those points. Ask them about your strengths as well to get some well needed ego boost.

For networking, in the UK, calling people doesn't work as well as sending emails - use linkedin and get introduction from friends. Also, try to talk to hedge funds in London - there are thousands of them and some of them are doing extremely well. But DO NOT mention that you are unlucky / finding a job is hard / how many calls you made because there is big chance that they've been through much worse than you.

Lots of the jobs are not on efinancials - forget efinancials, I never ever got a job through a headhunter. They are only useful for lateral moves for experienced people or for people with spotless CVs.

I talked to a kid like you 6 months ago and he settled for a BO job at MS. I think its a neat place to start your career, at least for your first year. If your background is so good, you'll end up in FO in no time. But as I said, if you can get a unpaid internship in FO, I would definitely take that over a BO job,

well I started in BO, but moved out rapidly. Its true that is is very hard to break out from BO to FO, but it depends on the company. Also depends on your age and if you are young enough (<25) and hungry enough you will be ok, just don't stay there for more than a year.

You may want to try some other FO jobs like IBD or Corporate Banking, Structured Finance ,etc. or even some research work with smaller places, or consulting work. Not for your teacher though, but for a proper corporate or city institution. This is a much easier sell for a S&T job later on. Another friend of mine went from big 4 audit into FX trading so also have a go at big 4. Competition is fierce and the economy is bad - so you just need to go off the beaten path. But seriously, knock on the doors of the thousands of hedge funds out there, there must be a place in need of free labour somewhere.

Have you thought of join a relevant professional society in order to attend their conferences / talks? They are useful to keep in the loop on what's going on in the industry, to meet people and learn about firms that you have never heard of etc...