A lot of people are wondering whether they should seek a CFA in place of the more traditional MBA. In large part, the answer depends on your focus. The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation has been enjoying a heightened profile and increased popularity in light of surging private equity activity. So far In 2007 - the program's 44th year - 140,000 people from 156 countries have registered to sit for the... Read more

Making the jump from Operations to front office management often brings with it a healthy dose of bumps. Factors like education and perceived skill can pigeon-hole candidates, forcing them to overcome the stigmas associated with years spend in the back office. The good news? It can be done. Doug Rickart, of Robert Half International in Minneapolis, argues the stigma associated with Operations jobs no longer exists. "There are a lot of... Read more

Making it through the job-search maze requires a finely crafted story and image. Besides recognizing and compellingly addressing a prospective employer's concrete business needs, a successful candidate must also address hidden requirements embedded in every screening and interview process. Some financial professionals who've been out of work for a long time may be compounding their difficulty by overlooking one such requirement: A viable resume must show a current, or at least... Read more

If you're in transition and recruiters and hiring managers are returning your calls for the first time in awhile, prepare for sticker shock. The compensation you earned a few years ago may no longer be anywhere near what similar roles are paying today. On the bright side, a rebound in financial hiring is increasingly apparent. But forget the headlines about seven-figure bonus guarantees for MD-level rainmakers. Down in the trenches, both... Read more

Age discrimination in hiring is a topic that reliably gets opinions flowing – sometimes to the point of boiling over. Reaction here and elsewhere to "Finessing Your Age on a Resume," an eFinancialCareers News story by contributing writer James Rubin, is a case in point. Citing the views of three resume-advice book authors, that Oct. 29 article suggested older candidates omit some dates from their resume to avoid being screened... Read more

Many junior-level Wall Streeters look on an MBA as their ticket onto the fast track. But experts warn against thinking an MBA alone can open doors. Only a dozen or so business schools, the ones making up the top tier of MBA programs nationwide, can confer instant credibility to candidates seeking their first bulge-bracket investment banking job. But if your career seems stuck in the slow lane, and Harvard or Columbia... Read more

Having spent the last six months of my life on a fairly concentrated job search - I'm looking for a position as a financial writer or communications professional - it's become obvious to me there are parallels between finding the perfect job and finding the perfect date or future mate. Both are sales games of a sort. Both are challenging right now, with the job scene an employer's market, and the... Read more

As more Wall Street firms make use of psychological testing, candidates do have options. Here are some of them. More Wall Street firms are giving job candidates personality tests. If you're required to take one while competing for a position, are there any ways to maximize your opportunities and avoid any pitfalls? It won't help to prepare in the conventional sense by studying or rehearsing, as you would do before an interview,... Read more

After fielding too many cold calls from headhunters, some cynics might argue it’s not so much “how to choose a recruiter,” as “how to avoid being chosen.” But that’s just the cynics. There's no doubt that if you want to change jobs, it helps to be proactive. So how do you choose? Belinda Martin, manager at the London financial services recruitment company Joslin Rowe, offers advice on how to choose the... Read more

Chris Gardner, whose life and career as a stockbroker was the basis for the film The Pursuit of Happyness, says the key to success lies in choosing work that you love. “Do something that you love,” Gardner told eFinancialCareers when asked for his most important piece of advice about building a Wall Street career. “Find something you love, and be bold enough to go do it. If you don’t love it,... Read more

A new government lawsuit against Merrill Lynch provides a fresh reminder that blindly participating in the less polite side of your workplace culture can damage your career. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Merrill under the Civil Rights Act Tuesday, based on a quant analyst's complaint that he was fired after being verbally harassed about being an Iranian and a Muslim. Merrill has denied the allegations, and the five-page EEOC... Read more

As Wall Street resizes itself, applying for jobs while unemployed appears set to become far more ordinary - maybe even respectable. Given all that's going on with layoffs and rumors of layoffs, this may be a good time to jot down the lessons I drew from a recent job search, which took far longer than expected. More than a year ago, after nine years as an analyst of varied fixed-income markets and... Read more

Do you feel guilty for performing a role that might otherwise go to someone younger than you? If you're reading eFinancialCareers, you'll almost certainly say "no." But your answer won't sit well with some opinion leaders. In her final column in Newsweek in May, famed essayist Anna Quindlen wrote that baby boomers (the generation born between 1946 and 1964) "have created a kind of bottleneck, in the work world, in politics, in... Read more

“Mother Theresa doesn’t work on Wall Street.” I recently read this quote. Since moving to a larger city at the start of the year, 2010 has been a mixed bag, both personally and professionally. I got offered my supposed “dream job” supporting the front office at one of the Big Four banks, only to have it cruelly taken away by a ruthless business-unit manager and an inept recruitment agency. I spent... Read more

An (anonymous female) contributor explains to our London correspondent why there aren't more women in hedge funds. I don't have a finance background - I grew up in the country and started out as a trader bidding grain before moving into financial arbitrage. From there I went to Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns as a prop trader before setting up with a colleague in 1998. It was incredibly difficult to get... Read more

How should financial institutions receiving taxpayer funds compensate their employees? That question is igniting a heated debate in Washington and on Wall Street, which will soon reverberate around the world. The viewpoint that's gaining momentum right now could make it difficult for banks and entities like American International Group to ever re-emerge as viable institutions with no government ties. The viewpoint was expressed most clearly by New York State Attorney General Andrew... Read more

Before you land an interview, you'll need to make sure you've got one of your job-hunting tools honed to a razor's edge: your resume. Sure, you know your resume has to present your skills and work experience in the strongest possible way. And, you probably know most resumes get a first read that is, at best, quick. But when you consider that most hiring managers make their decision about a candidate... Read more

Maybe, just maybe, America's historic elevation of Barack Obama to president-elect will take the edge off the blood-lust that's being directed against just about anyone working in the financial services industry. Or maybe it won't. Both economically and spiritually, it's ugly out there, and it's going to get uglier. People seized between the jaws called pain and fear rarely act from their best impulses. Instead, they tend to lash out at... Read more

Looking for a job can be a daunting task, even in good times. To help you organize your efforts, use this checklist. Being buttoned up is especially important if you're working and looking for a new position, because you have to stay on your game even while you're scoping out new positions. 1. Do What You Can To Keep Yourself Employed • Step up to help out; be a utility player –... Read more

If I had given up at any time during my job search, I would not have found a job, received a second round of publicity for my success and perseverance, or ended up where I am today. My experience illustrates why it is so important to keep your eyes on your goal and maintain the determination to reach it. I never stopped sending out resumes, even when I received very... Read more