Advice for a jobless Finance major since one year after graduation?

My story:
Graduated Finance from Mich. State University. Did a few local internships at Morgan Stanley and accounting/finance departments at local hospitals.
Since I graduated last May I have been working part time for a physician managing his business.
I have been expressing my interest to relocate for positions to any state within the USA.

I've been successful in acquiring interviews at big name companies: Intel, HP, Ralph Lauren, Target, Dell..to name a few. I have also received job offers for jobs in the Financial rep field (which I have no interest of pursuing).

Now it has been a year and I just found out that the job I was betting on just let me know I will not be getting a job with them.
I've used all the connections I have, dad works at HP, uncle works at CitiBank, friend used to be in IB, past room mate works for GE.. and thats only the people who were at arms length away from me, I've contacted many people who these people know as well.

I am currently living in MI and I have been debating on moving to a big city out of state and maybe getting a local job or a temp job. I'm getting desperate and I know a 1 yr gap from graduation to working in the industry looks bad and can become difficult to explain without making myself look unappealing.

any advice would be great!


tl;dr: Graduated from MSU last May with BA in Finance, been looking for a job as an Analyst, IB, Fund management, etc.. but not limiting myself to only Finance also been looking at Accounting/Supply Chain/Marketing

Originally Posted by Saturdays

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My story:
Graduated Finance from Mich. State University. Did a few local internships at Morgan Stanley and accounting/finance departments at local hospitals.
Since I graduated last May I have been working part time for a physician managing his business.
I have been expressing my interest to relocate for positions to any state within the USA.

I've been successful in acquiring interviews at big name companies: Intel, HP, Ralph Lauren, Target, Dell..to name a few. I have also received job offers for jobs in the Financial rep field (which I have no interest of pursuing).

Now it has been a year and I just found out that the job I was betting on just let me know I will not be getting a job with them.
I've used all the connections I have, dad works at HP, uncle works at CitiBank, friend used to be in IB, past room mate works for GE.. and thats only the people who were at arms length away from me, I've contacted many people who these people know as well.

I am currently living in MI and I have been debating on moving to a big city out of state and maybe getting a local job or a temp job. I'm getting desperate and I know a 1 yr gap from graduation to working in the industry looks bad and can become difficult to explain without making myself look unappealing.

any advice would be great!


tl;dr: Graduated from MSU last May with BA in Finance, been looking for a job as an Analyst, IB, Fund management, etc.. but not limiting myself to only Finance also been looking at Accounting/Supply Chain/Marketing

The boat for IB, HF/PE and all that sailed months ago. Forget about that and think of another area of business you might be interested in. At this stage the best advice I can give you is to be as proactive as possible in your search and try to lower your standards a bit without screwing yourself for the future. What I mean by this is that you obviously don't want to take any job but you can't wait around for a plum spot a Morgan Stanley to open up either, because it won't.

Yea, network your ass off, and don't take no for an answer. Do it harder, and if you can't get a banking job in 6 months, go to grad school and try to get in as an associate.

Originally Posted by uNiCoRnPriNcEsSx

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Yea, network your ass off, and don't take no for an answer. Do it harder, and if you can't get a banking job in 6 months, go to grad school and try to get in as an associate.

MBA won't work for him, no working experience. Any other master degree will be analyst as well, you can try to negotiate that as well, but usually nothing will happen.

To OP, if you think IBD is your life calling, then working for a bit, MBA back to IBD is the most possible route. Any other one is much harder, yes you can network your ass off, but that's not a guarantee, and you have been sitting for a year already, any longer it's going to look really funny on your resume.

As far as I know commercial bank, American Express are much easier to get in, if you don't mind that, then might not be a bad idea. Do you really want to be in finance though? You're actually young enough to take a stab at something else. I would skip accounting, to me it's a worse trap.

good luck to you

look for internships at i-banks. The summer ones are gone, but maybe you can get a winter one somewhere.

Going to a 2nd rate mba program just to get one won't do **** for you without experience.

Originally Posted by Quadcammer

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look for internships at i-banks. The summer ones are gone, but maybe you can get a winter one somewhere.

Going to a 2nd rate mba program just to get one won't do **** for you without experience.

I have been looking at internships but nearly every internship is for-credit only.

Originally Posted by Saturdays

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I have been looking at internships but nearly every internship is for-credit only.

You don't sound like someone who is deadset on IB, but rather someone who wants to do it because it's the place to go after graduating in finance. My advice to you would be to look into some other business function or maybe corporate finance rather than wasting your time trying to break into IB.

Originally Posted by clee1982

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MBA won't work for him, no working experience. Any other master degree will be analyst as well, you can try to negotiate that as well, but usually nothing will happen. To OP, if you think IBD is your life calling, then working for a bit, MBA back to IBD is the most possible route. Any other one is much harder, yes you can network your ass off, but that's not a guarantee, and you have been sitting for a year already, any longer it's going to look really funny on your resume. As far as I know commercial bank, American Express are much easier to get in, if you don't mind that, then might not be a bad idea. Do you really want to be in finance though? You're actually young enough to take a stab at something else. I would skip accounting, to me it's a worse trap.
I have very little tolerance for Accounitng and if I can avoid it I will. I'm only 22 so yes I am young, probably a big downside when looking for a job. I am considering getting a degree in Supply Chain from MSU since it usually is regarded as the #1 or #2 school for Supply Chain. My most ideal job would be to run a mutual fund for a company or at least participate in the analysis that goes into the purchases and decisions the fund managers make, obviously this is not the end-point but possibly a mid-point into a career. However I am very flexible, not because I am desperate, but because I have many interests I am willing to pursue and not afraid to make, let's say, Supply Chain as my career choice, even though I have an interest in Finance. My father keeps stressing I get an MBA or Master's but everyone I speak with other than family and friends tells me to work 2-3 yrs before pursuing a MBA or Master's. Also pursuing a Master's in Finance is not an easy task particularly because most schools require previous work/studies in various programming language. I have also thought of diversifying myself by getting a degree in something more specialized like Retailing or Video/Film design, and this might gear me for corporations in that industry.

Originally Posted by Lord-Barrington

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The boat for IB, HF/PE and all that sailed months ago. Forget about that and think of another area of business you might be interested in. At this stage the best advice I can give you is to be as proactive as possible in your search and try to lower your standards a bit without screwing yourself for the future. What I mean by this is that you obviously don't want to take any job but you can't wait around for a plum spot a Morgan Stanley to open up either, because it won't.
I try my best to lower my standards but maybe I am not lowering enough.

Originally Posted by Lord-Barrington

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You don't sound like someone who is deadset on IB, but rather someone who wants to do it because it's the place to go after graduating in finance. My advice to you would be to look into some other business function or maybe corporate finance rather than wasting your time trying to break into IB.

yeah i tried to stress that I'm not dead set into IB. Corporate Finance would be ideal for me, something I can relate much more to. To tell you the truth I have not applied to many IB jobs as compared to Corp Finance, Consulting, Supply Chain, Financial Analyst etc..

Most interviews I have had have been for the Finance side of Supply Chain and Financial Analyst positions. Both of which I do not mind working in to build up a starting point for a career, unfortunately I have yet to provided an offer for any of these positions.

I don't even mind working min. wage, as long as I can receive adequate and necessary experience within Corporate Finance/Financial Analyst roles.

Originally Posted by Saturdays

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I have very little tolerance for Accounitng and if I can avoid it I will. I'm only 22 so yes I am young, probably a big downside when looking for a job. I am considering getting a degree in Supply Chain from MSU since it usually is regarded as the #1 or #2 school for Supply Chain. My most ideal job would be to run a mutual fund for a company or at least participate in the analysis that goes into the purchases and decisions the fund managers make, obviously this is not the end-point but possibly a mid-point into a career. However I am very flexible, not because I am desperate, but because I have many interests I am willing to pursue and not afraid to make, let's say, Supply Chain as my career choice, even though I have an interest in Finance.

My father keeps stressing I get an MBA or Master's but everyone I speak with other than family and friends tells me to work 2-3 yrs before pursuing a MBA or Master's. Also pursuing a Master's in Finance is not an easy task particularly because most schools require previous work/studies in various programming language. I have also thought of diversifying myself by getting a degree in something more specialized like Retailing or Video/Film design, and this might gear me for corporations in that industry.



I try my best to lower my standards but maybe I am not lowering enough.

I work in supply chain and I find it quite interesting, for whatever that's worth. It's a lot more involving as an entry level job than a lot of other business functions where you're just entering data or staring at your computer screen all day.
I'm a firm believer than getting a masters degree because you can't find a job is a bad idea. Go to work first and use your graduate degree to specialize. Getting an MBA right away is a terrible idea. MBAs are usually for 5-7 years out unless you're in MC or IB where you usually do an MBA after 2-3 years.

Originally Posted by Lord-Barrington

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I work in supply chain and I find it quite interesting, for whatever that's worth. It's a lot more involving as an entry level job than a lot of other business functions where you're just entering data or staring at your computer screen all day.
I'm a firm believer than getting a masters degree because you can't find a job is a bad idea. Go to work first and use your graduate degree to specialize. Getting an MBA right away is a terrible idea. MBAs are usually for 5-7 years out unless you're in MC or IB where you usually do an MBA after 2-3 years.

yeah I've been thinking of doing a second Undergrad degree in Supply Chain, it shouldn't take me more than a year and a half to complete. I can possibly use the status of being a student to get some internships to build up more experience. Any thoughts on this route?

Originally Posted by Saturdays

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yeah I've been thinking of doing a second Undergrad degree in Supply Chain, it shouldn't take me more than a year and a half to complete. I can possibly use the status of being a student to get some internships to build up more experience. Any thoughts on this route?

Not sure about the second undergrad. You might want to find someone who has done it (not necessarily in SCM) and see how it work. But I think there comes a time when you have to sack it up and plough ahead until you find something. Kids our age (I'm in my twenties as well) tend to avoid the labor market until things fall into place and their expectations for employment are met. Sometimes you just need to jump in and start hustling.

Originally Posted by Lord-Barrington

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Not sure about the second undergrad. You might want to find someone who has done it (not necessarily in SCM) and see how it work. But I think there comes a time when you have to sack it up and plough ahead until you find something. Kids our age (I'm in my twenties as well) tend to avoid the labor market until things fall into place and their expectations for employment are met. Sometimes you just need to jump in and start hustling.

Yeah, alternatively I may take the plunge and head out to Chicago, got a friend with an apartment there who is willing to let me stay with him and use his address to find a job there locally.

Originally Posted by Saturdays

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I have very little tolerance for Accounting and if I can avoid it I will.
Have you considered tax? I graduated two years ago with a Major in Managerial Economics and a minor in Accounting and was able to find a job in Multistate Tax. A lot of the issue we work on (unity, instant unity, nexus) straddle the IB hemisphere.