Focused Job Search Plan

These days I am thinking that career searching as a part of life... I have only ever worked for two companies, and both of them I didn't really look all that hard for the job. Over the past year, I have noticed almost all of my friends have gone through some type of job change. Also, quite a few of them are currently unemployed, which works really well for a mid-week night out on the town! A lot of them are hitting it hard, and others not so much. It takes a lot of stamina and motivation to continually job search. 

Although I am no expert, but what keeps me motivated is I have set and written out a vision for my life 10 years from now. It is specific, in that it details how much money I want to make, and what type of job, friends and where/how I want to live based on things that I value. I also have a list of 5-10 values, much like a company has value statements, and these values help guide my choices in terms of where I want to put my energy in terms of commitments I make to myself and others. Based on the 10 years from now projection, I have written 5 year and 1 year projection. From there, I have created a commitments list that details what I want to do to achieve that 1 year projection. Knowing that my current commitments (i.e. actions) are getting me towards my end vision really keep me motivated. 

A couple of other things that keep me motivated are really believing that I will achieve the 10 year vision. When I really believe in something, my mind comes up with interesting ways to achieve that belief, and I create more commitments towards more goals. 

Below are my current commitments for the career search. Note, this is now a month into my job search, and some of my previous commitments included updating my linkedin, creating this blog, researching alumni connections, getting business cards, etc. 

Commitments: Career Search

-read PE Hub, WSJ and twitter feed daily (wifi) XXX

-review contacts tracker and complete follow-ups (wifi) XXX

-apply to jobs on e-financials and Queen’s weekly (wifi) XXX

-research other private equity firms in NY and apply for positions that specialize in energy, ITsec based on PEHub, DealBook and WSJ articles(wifi) XXX

-review Canadian pe and vc firms, create a list I want to target (laptop)

-create a list of private equity / venture capital meetings, training and conferences. Register for relevant and add speakers/organizes to contact tracker for outreach  (wifi)

-reach out to korn ferry, heidrisk & struggles, ludwig, vlaadco recruiters (wifi)

-write a blog post every other day and then post to twitter, linked-in, etc (wifi)

-reach out to professors and ask about resume advice and informational contacts (wifi)

-Summarize the Career Leader in Post MBA Journal ()

-update Edgar’s linked in profile (laptop + edgar), target (wifi)

-find other Canadians in NYC that work in industry (wifi)

Legend: 

XXX - Priority / do almost every day. 

(etc) - What type of resources I need to do the commitments

All the best, 

-BSM. 

Summer Associate Programs -- The Last Minute Recruit

Happy Post-Independence Day and Happy Post-Canada Day, and for all the other Countries in the Northern Hemisphere, I believe an amazing summer is ahead. I took the weekend off of job hunting, which I have now done for the past three weeks, and basically disconnected from the world, on a beach on Long Island. It was a nice mix of friends, parties and relaxing. 

Before the long weekend,  my goal was to try to land a summer associate program at one of the major banks. Every summer, the large banks take fresh MBA graduates and put them through a couple of months of training about the bank, and then they go through rotations around the firm for several years until the perfect fit is found. I spent several days of last week contacting all the campus recruiting directors at the big investment banks in NYC.

The recruiting for these associate programs usually happens in the fall. I was working full-time and going to school full time for my MBA while the recruiting was happening. Like most people in my class, I wasn't really paying attention; school and work was enough. Recruiting for the Associate Programs is pretty much solely targeted towards full-time MBAs. I think this is a failing of the Administrators of part-time MBA programs and banks are also missing out on attracting good talent. 

Despite missing out on the recruiting season, a friend of mine suggested that I contact some of the IBs and see if there were any last minute cancellations or openings into the program. The vast majority of them start the first week in July. So, I started with a linkedin search of all the campus recruiting directors at the large firms (Goldman, Barclays, UBS, Nomura, JP Morgan, Deutche, Credit Suisse, CITI,  Bank of America / Merrill Lynch,  RBC). At most of the firms I was able to speak to someone in HR and they all pretty much said that at an analyst level, perhaps they wold look at a last minute recruit, but not at the associate / post-MBA level. My couple of days of effort was not wasted. I made several great connections with HR recruiters that advised there were looking for experienced managers for associate roles. So, I have closed out the task to try for a summer associate program, and will be actively pursuing those opportunities this week (I am developing a networking approach for some of the more interesting roles and I will see how it goes). 

As a coincidence, I met with a fellow university alumni this morning for coffee in midtown, and there was a sign in the Barclay's lobby that said "Welcome 2011 Graduates to the Associate Program" There was obviously a certain feeling of satisfaction in knowing that I had tried to get in, instead of wondering what could have been! 

As a side note, there is a great coffee shop called the Financier Patisserie, with quiet outdoor seating and amazing coffee on 6th Ave and 48th st. Check it out if you need a little respite just north of Times Square. 

Location of Financier Patisserie

-BSM.