This question was asked at an interview for a junior-level position at an investment bank. The background It was a third-round interview and the panel seemed to have exhausted their questions. But as the interview drew to a close, the head interviewer said: “As we have five minutes left, could you tell us something remarkable?” How the candidate responded My mind was blank, but before I could stop the words... Read more

When considering whether to pursue a credential such as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, the next question likely to come to mind after "Will it upgrade my job prospects or compensation?" is, "Will what I learn improve my job performance?" A review of published research "reveals a patchwork of studies that don't uniformly and unequivocally show outperformance by charterholders," writes Christopher Wright in the January-February issue of CFA Magazine, published... Read more

What'll it be - a graduate degree in finance or a CFA charter? A growing number of universities have set out to provide the tools to acquire both. Around the world, some 41 educational institutions have signed on to a partnership program that the CFA Institute initiated in April 2006. The schools embed in their graduate curricula at least 70 percent of the "body of knowledge" that forms the basis of... Read more

First came asset write-downs. Then came bailouts. Now, the U.S. government is taking a large, voting equity stake in Citigroup. The chain of events pulling significant pillars of the financial industry from shareholder to government control is coming to look increasingly inexorable. But what does nationalizing a bank do to the careers and compensation outlooks of professionals who work there? Constrained upside will drive producers and senior executives to seek... Read more

Nomura Holdings reportedly aims to add 300 more employees in the U.S. by March, on top of the 300 additional staffers it has hired thus far in 2009. That would boost U.S. headcount at Japan's largest investment bank to 1,200, or double where it stood at the start of this year. "We want to make sure that we have got sufficient business and people (in the U.S.) so that we... Read more

A study by The Wall Street Journal indicates the days of an Ivy league degree being the key to success everywhere may be over. But not on Wall Street. Ivy Leaguers remain perched atop the pecking order. Jobs in investment banking, for example, are still dominated by those from elite academic institutions. A Harvard MBA or a degree from Wharton remain the best way to gain entry into firms like Goldman... Read more

Are fundamental equity analysts doomed to be replaced by machines? That's the implication of a recent Reuters story by Dane Hamilton. The sources quoted are mainly quantitative investment experts from the hedge fund community, but also include Brad Hintz, an influential financial services analyst at AllianceBernstein who was once Lehman Brothers' CFO. "At an increasing number of Wall Street investment banks, hedge funds and elsewhere, computers are churning out investment analyses culled... Read more

You are nearing the end of an interview with a potential employer. It has gone well, in the sense that there were no questions that made you sweat or stutter. At this point, you are suppose to ask the interviewer some questions which bedazzle her with such insightfulness that she will not let you out of the meeting without your signature on an employment offer. But let's for argument's sake assume... Read more

In the following Q&A interview, Barry Sine, director of research for San Diego-based CapStone Investments, outlines his approach to hiring within a boutique investment bank whose compensation model is eat-what-you-kill. He explains why CapStone prefers recently unemployed candidates to employed ones. The firm, which currently employs approximately 50 professionals, is nearing its goal of having 12 to 15 senior professionals each in sales/trading, research and investment banking. Describe CapStone's build-out... Read more

Finding a great job in the financial markets can be challenging in the best of times, but when Wall Street firms announce the kind of headcount reductions we’ve been seeing lately the search becomes down right daunting. And according to a survey eFinancialCareers conducted this month with financial professionals, recruiters may not really help job seekers all that much either. The survey found that while nearly four out of five (78%)... Read more

The expected cost of new regulations being implemented from financial reform was cited at the SIFMA Dodd-Frank impact Analysis conference as one reason banks are reluctant create new jobs. "There's a capital strike going on in corporate America," said Larry Kudlow, economist and host of the CNBC program, "The Kudlow Report." Speaking at the conference, Kudlow went on to say banks are "afraid to take the risk of hiring until... Read more

Fidelity's agency broker unit, Fidelity Capital Markets, is adding 100 New York slots for traders and support staff for a new trading floor slated for completion in this year's second quarter. The firm is hiring in equities, fixed income, sales, sales trading and prime brokerage and other areas, Fidelity Capital Markets Services President Mark Haggerty told Advanced Trading, an industry Web site. Key decision-makers over the new team are Mathew McConnell, who... Read more

Wall Street is on its back, but scientists would be wise to take a contrarian approach and investigate careers in finance, says the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In a three-part feature on financial careers in its official publication, Science, the association likens preparing to enter the industry to the old investing maxim, "buy low, sell high." It also predicts demand for quantitative expertise and rigorous analysis will grow... Read more

A long-running U.S. hiring binge by Australia’s Macquarie Group has intensified this month with the addition of senior bankers from Bank of America, Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital. The U.S. contributed just 8 percent of Macquarie’s operating income for the year ended March 31. But that figure is poised to climb due to recent acquisitions and opportunistic hiring in business segments from which the biggest global banks have retreated. "At the... Read more

"Since Obama was elected, we don't have a diversity issue anymore," one HR consultant I know said recently. She was being sarcastic. And, indeed, a number of black professionals continue to face high hurdles as they search for work, even when they have experience with top firms and degrees from top schools. Between January and October 2009 the disparity in joblessness between whites and blacks with college degrees was more severe... Read more

The ranks of Charter Financial Analysts in Canada are growing. More than 9,990 are registered to take the CFA exam in June, up 68 percent from 5,914 in 2006. Bob Johnson, deputy chief executive of the non-profit CFA Institute, says that's a sign of growing interest in the certification by employers, and the greater availability of training at colleges. Moreover, Johnson says, the number of candidates taking the exam for the... Read more

Chinese economic expansion is sparking demand for various finance professionals for work within the U.S., says private equity consultant Song Jin. As privately owned Chinese firms move to invest in U.S. businesses and raise capital here, they'll need experienced U.S.-based investment bankers, lawyers, accountants and investor relations professionals, among others. That incipient trend, a by-product of the U.S. financial crisis and recession, marks the flip side of Western bankers' longstanding... Read more

Wall Street analyst Meredith Whitney has made a name for herself with her dire predictions for years. But last month she got the Street's attention when she said that securities firms would shed 80,000 jobs over the next year-and-a-half. Now that Bank of America has announced a slew of cuts in its investment bank, many are wondering whether lower revenues will lead others to follow suit. And, whether Whitney will be... Read more

The CFA Institute recently released results for two levels of the June Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exams. If you're already in or thinking about signing up for the CFA program, what do the recent and historical pass rates for those exams say about your prospects of making it through the program? Really, not much. During the past five years, roughly 40 percent of candidates who took the CFA Level I and... Read more