Why Financial Services?
By Mark
Kolakowski, About.com Guide
Financial Services Overview: The financial services industry has a long history of attracting energetic and ambitious people who are looking for the best career opportunities. Here are a few of the industry’s most significant selling points for prospective employees.
Compensation: The industry is noted for compensation structures that are, overall, much more generous than in other sectors of the economy. See our more detailed discussion of compensation for details.
Advancement: Compared to other industries, the financial industry tends to place less weight on seniority in judging the readiness of employees for advancement. High performers can move ahead regardless of age. As a result, working in financial services can be particularly attractive for ambitious young people in a hurry.
Bureaucracy: Many of the leading firms tend to be relatively thinly-staffed. There are comparatively few layers of management. Decision-making tends to be rather quick. Your opportunities for getting face time in front of senior management also tend to be excellent. That is, these firms do not normally operate in a highly formalized, chain of command fashion which is more typical of slower-footed traditional industrial companies. You also are more likely to juggle multiple responsibilities within a given job category, compared to norm in other companies.
Pace: A premium is placed on quick thinking, quick acting, and constant production of results. This can be trying for some people, exhilarating for others. The thin staffing and comparative lack of bureaucracy requires exceptionally hard work, focus and commitment to stay afloat, let alone to succeed. For those who do, however, the rewards are commensurately great.
Caveats: As a general rule, the banking and insurance sectors of financial services tend to be rather more bureaucratic, more deeply staffed and less remunerative at all levels than firms whose principal lines of business are in (for example) securities brokerage, securities trading, investment management, securities research and/or investment banking. These latter types of firms include what is commonly called Wall Street.
- Resume Writing Tips, Interviewing Tips, Cover Letters…
Interviewing Tips
http://www.jobweb.org/Interview/help.aspx?id=636
Preparing for the interview
Writing a resume
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbZ5_ar4Dj0
Rockport Institute on resume writing
http://www.rockportinstitute.com/resumes.html
Cover letter: Virginia Tech
http://www.career.vt.edu/jobsearchguide/coverlettersamples.html
Cover Letter: Resume-Help.org
http://www.resume-help.org/cover_letter_tips.htm
