james010

[james010]

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What happens if you say work in a bank but not in a finance related role? I basically work in operations in payment processing. Basically a bank teller except for business customers and not individuals. I don’t have anything to with financial/investment decisions (or any decision making for that matter!).

[james010]

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Haha. some really good ones here. Especially the Silent hill one!

[james010]

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@sophie – I am based in London (city).

[james010]

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Yeah relevant experience is such a catch 22. Can’t get a job without experience that you can only get from the job that you can’t get!

[james010]

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I’ve been doing 3 and 4 for about 2 years now and can just never seem to get any traction at all. This is going to come across really negatively but I am just so fed up of this crap! I feel like I have been judged and that the gods have decided ‘This guy is a moron, keep him away from anything important, and most importantly, do not reply to his applications!’. I don’t really know what to do as my current temporary contract is due to run out in the summer and as it stands I will be unemployed then as I currently have no leads at all.

[james010]

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Hi @sophie – revision is going ok. Trying to memorize all the formula for all the topics. @mattjuniper – Nice abs but I suspect you have not been entirely honest about the identity of the man in the poster.

[james010]

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Ask him!

[james010]

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badge please!

[james010]

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Hi @sophie – I am interested in any type of trading really but if I could have my pick I would either like to get into equities/ equity derivatives/ loan or repo trading. A friend’s boyfriend does it and have talked to him a bit about it and it sounds like what I would be interested in. That or FX. Where I work has a relatively small FX/ FX options trading floor but there are very few opportunities to get in there (one every few years or so) so am looking to jump as soon as possible. Would do anything to get a foot in the door as having no luck so far.

If anyone out there in 300hour land has any advice/would be up for meeting up for a coffee please get in touch!

[james010]

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I do know what the ideal profile they are looking for is. However it consists of relevant degree + relevant internships. I do not see any way I can achieve this as I am working full time unless I took the extreme step of going back to uni, from the large amount of Linkedin profiles I have seen it is also possible to take the longer route of gradually more relevant jobs at the right place. However the initial first step is proving very difficult as I cannot seem to get taken seriously by any of the investment firms as even I realize and readily admit that there must be better candidates on paper than me so my CV usually goes in the No/maybe pile. I am hoping against hope that having the CFA level 1 may change things slightly in my favour, whether I get it in June/December. I would be really interested in doing the CISI exams but I do not think I could cope with those at the same time as CFA. Though I may consider it if I fail in June as I will have less ground to cover for December and therefore proportionally more time. Nevertheless I am determined to keep trying however long it takes as.

[james010]

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Thanks for you explanations everybody. I am still not getting where the 8.4 is coming from. Is this just made up? Even if it is I still don’t get what it is supposed to represent…..If someone could just tell me where this number comes from and what it represents I would really appreciate it.

[james010]

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To get out of back office operations and into trading. Also to try and erase the 2.2 and get into graduate schemes for trading.

[james010]

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Yeah I kind of figured. Looking to change jobs as soon as possible as well as doing the CFA.

[james010]

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My biggest problem is that I have a 2.2 degree (which I admit is my fault). It basically means that although I am a graduate, for most graduate jobs in finance, I cannot apply/am filtered out by a computer. I went through a phase for about a year of applying to banks/asset managers that required a 2.1 but never got anywhere so I have come to the conclusion that this strategy doesn’t work. Why would they bother when there are literally thousands of others with a better number next to their name.

I would say the rejections are tough as well but I actually don’t get many! Most companies never reply/acknowledge applications. Also I really try not to get too excited when I do manage to get a lead as they never usually go anywhere.

I actually have quite a funny story about networking where basically I met a guy at a party and asked if he wanted to meet up in the city for a drink/coffee as I was really interested in his company/ job, and he said there may be an opportunity for me. He was slightly camp but I was too busy foaming at the mouth dreaming of finally getting my ticket to greatness at a big ibank to realise what was going on. So anyway a week or so later I am invited to quite a posh bar in the city. I thought it was strictly networking but it turned out to be a gay date of sorts. Was basically wined and dined for a few hours, pretty sure he was coming on to me. I declined any offers of further entertainment. Sent my CV/ covering letter but haven’t heard anything since. Oh well, that’s the trials and tribulations of a wannabe cityboy! LOL.

[james010]

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I also find the worrying about not being in a good career pretty bad. When I tell my friends work in a bank in London they all assume I must be doing pretty well but the truth is I am just surviving in a really low level administrative role.I find myself constantly worried about this and it’s always in the back of my head.

[james010]

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Seems Japanese is quite popular, I can speak Japanese! I lived there for a year after I graduated and learnt quite a bit at uni. I also work at a Japanese bank which helps.
To prove I’m not lying、僕は日本語が話せる。大学を卒業した後は、1年間日本で働いた。現在は日経銀行にいますので駐在員の方たちと日本語で会話するチャンスがある。

I can speak Chinese a little bit, but I am definitely not fluent….在以前的工作我学了一点点的普通话还广东话。但是现在我没有说中国话的机会。

[james010]

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@DollarsToDonuts長野県。

[james010]

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I haven’t viewed all his videos but I used his free videos on quantitative methods a lot in the early days (Jan/ Feb) as I was totally new to the topic. They helped quite a lot as he goes through the stuff really slowly and simplifies everything. His video on how to use the TA plus calculator is also very good and saved me a lot of time as I had previously been trying to do some of the calculations manually. I think he lives in Pakistan and so gives many examples related to stocks on Pakistani stock exchange!

Come exam day I may be proved wrong but from my last 6 months of studying I would say just focus on the materials you have be it CFAI or Schweser and work it out for yourself.No provider will do the work for you. I previously tried to go through all of his videos and I found it was taking too much time as they go at a very slow pace and there are so many videos. If you learn well from videos etc I am sure his are pretty good and his packages are pretty cheap compared to other providers but video learning isn’t really my style and I just use his videos as a last resort if I really am not getting something. Also the free ones are from 2011 and so some of the topics he covers are no longer relevant (Economics has completely changed etc).

If you are going to use them – I recommend accessing them straight from his website as it is easier than navigating thought the vids on Youtube.

[james010]

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I used spaced repetition (Anki +another program) heavily to learn Japanese/Chinese in uni and it was extremely effective. Particularly for learning the thousands of characters so I have no doubts that it works. I tried to make cards for CFA level 1 earlier this year but I found it was taking too much time to make the cards for topics such as FRA where the explanations are quite long so I stopped doing it and it is probably too late to start again as the point of SRS is to put the info in your long term memory over a period of weeks and months. Though will consider for Level II (or Level 1 in December…..!)

For CFA I think flashcards would work really well for learning formulas and other short concise parts that you just have to memorize. I totally agree with what Marek says about not making generic ones and making them for stuff you have just learned.

That said though, it definitely isn’t the holy grail as it is simple but not an easy way to learn stuff as you really have to concentrate pretty hard to go through potentially hundreds of cards a day (which will happen eventually if you add around 20/ 30 per day). It has to be done religiously as skipping a day can be quite damaging memory wise, as well as just making it harder to catch up the next day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve

[james010]

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More chest beating…..? Who cares.

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