Hi Niraj,
I'm not a prolific contributor to these forums, but you seem like a nice enough chap, so one final contribution to this thread from me.
You wrote earlier that your target is reasonable and achievable, but I think that's where the fundamental problem lies. It's certainly possible, in the same way that winning the lottery is possible, but I think you're fooling yourself if you believe it's a realistic option for you at the moment.
The sort of CVs of peoply you see applying for graduate positions nowadays are frankly incredibly good. They have the sort of CV that I could only have dreamt of having when I was their age. The few who don't have masters degrees all have a 1st or a 2:1 from top universities and frequently 4 A grades at A-levels. But nowadays that's often not enough. Many candidates will already have done an internship somewhere and will have made sure they can get a glowing reference from a director-level person there. Often they have done finance courses, or a thesis on something finance-related and frequently they've won awards for their academic work. Sometimes they will have lectured at university or undertaken special research projects for the departmental professors.
These are the sort of people you're up against for the decent jobs. You tell us you're driven and motivated by the money, but the graduates you're up against are so driven and have such a long term perspective on getting a good job and earning top money that they have not only bothered to work hard at their studies and get a good degree, but they've also done loads of extra-curricular activities which look impressive on their CVs. And they've been doing it since school. These people have a long-term perspective and they work hard to achieve it.
Quite possibly you'd argue that your academic results may not be at all representative of your performance in the workplace, but that really doesn't make any difference. In the workplace you may be the most driven person in the world, but why would a graduate recruiter take the chance when they have loads of other candidates all of whom say they're equally driven and have the CV to prove they really are.
Now, in normal times I still think you'd have a good chance of getting a place somewhere and then having the opportunity to shine and advance. But these aren't normal times. Bearing in mind London is one of the top handful of financial centres, these are the current estimates of global redundancies SO FAR from JUST the big houses:
- Citigroup - 15,000
- Merrill Lynch - 5,600
- UBS - 7,000
- Morgan Stanley - 5,000
- Lehman Brothers - 5,000
- BofA - 3,650
- HSBC: 1,800
- Bear Stearns: 1,550 (with many more to follow)
- Goldman Sachs: 1,500
- Credit Suisse: 1,350
- RBoS / ABN: 200 (with many more to follow)
Adding in the very many smaller firms, that's a huge number of people out there looking for a job - all of whom have got valuable experience on their CVs. So for every one of the 300 jobs you've applied for, think of all the other CVs they've received from people who have done the job before, have proved they can do the job, and probably have a former boss happy to tell you how good they are at it.
Now put yourself in the shoes of the recruitment agent or HR person. You've got a job position you need to fill and you've got loads of CVs from people with good experience who've done the job before. You've also got a CV from some guy with a 2:2 from QMU, a handful of dodgy A levels and a work experience in bathroom sales. Are you really going to give it more than a moment's thought? Are you seriously going to risk your own reputation recommending this person by putting forward his CV to whoever makes the hiring decision when there are so many other good candidates around?
So what would I do in your shoes? Well, actually, I think the best thing to do would be the thing you least want to do - go and do that Masters degree in something finance orientated at a good university, take care to do a dissertation related to the real world, get a paper from it published in an academic journal and make sure you get a distinction. Then nobody will care any more about the 2:2. Also, you get to be studying while the worst of the finance recession passes and by the time you're finished the jobs market might be starting to pick up.
I somehow doubt you'll do that, though, and given how fed up you sound with academia perhaps that's a good thing.
Second alternative would be to go out into the real world - ideally perhaps in a foreign country, so you get some interesting experience of another culture. Then, after a year or two of doing a tedious low paid job, perhaps going back and doing the masters then will be a much more attractive opportunity and it won't seem like such a chore.
One thing I wouldn't do, though, is to put yourself through any of the finance professional qualifications. Most of them are very dry subjects and deadly boring and without the lure of a likely interesting job at the end, I very much doubt you'll stick with them and get through the exams. You certainly don't want a failed attempt or a poor pass on your CV.
One final story before I sign off, to give you a taste of graduate recruitment in the city. It's quite old and you may well have heard it before. No doubt it's apocryphal, but it's got a ring of truth about it.
There were two traders who drew the short straw and were tasked one year with helping out with the graduate recruitment process. One of the first tasks they had to do was to sit down together and wade through some of the hundreds of CVs which had passed the HR department's initial vetting process to work out who they were going to invite in for interview.
The two of them got to the meeting room set up for them by HR, and there on the table was a thick pile of CVs for them to read through. One of the traders went over to the pile, picked up about half of the CVs and threw them straight in the bin.
"What are you doing? You can't do that." said the second trader.
"You wouldn't want to employ someone who was unlucky, would you?" replied the first.
