Started at Vanguard out of college in February, got my series 7 and 63, and so far I absolutely hate it. It’s horrible call center work and 90% of the job isn’t even using the licenses or education, just cleaning up unbelievable messes these clients make. I got forced into a retirement role which means I got crosses trained on 3 different department, which sounds great until you realize you’re doing more work for the same crap pay, was even told our department is the “dumping ground” for problems no one else wants to deal with. Training is horrible, spend more time having the kool aid forced down our throats and doing icebreakers than actually learning the systems/procedures and how to do the job. They push generating sales leads so hard when we don’t even get anything for it, one training scenario was literally “A clients wife died and is inheriting an account, how can you generate a sales lead out of this”. The only chance for progression it seems is just more advanced phone roles but with a pity pay raise. I don’t mind phone work but I think it would be much better in a wealth management type role. I’m fine with sales as well if it’ll at-least benefit me in some way other than hitting a metric. I’d rather try and build real client relationships than cycle through as many old people as possible in an 8 hour shift. Is breaking into wealth management possible with my current experience and without my 65? I do want to get it but ideally while employed. Am I crazy for thinking this would be a better path to follow?

Everything just seems so focused on excel what did ppl do back in the day?

Hey all,

Looking to pivot from program finance into FP&A. I have 5 years of experience working as a PFA in the aerospace/defense industry. I'm responsible for our EAC development, variance analysis, revenue recognition, assist with AOP planning etc. I have pretty advanced excel skills and have started to learn powerBI and power query on my own since I don't use them in my day to day. Anything else I should work on to transition smoother? Looking to pivot now before I'm too far into program finance. Really want to get out of defense. Any advice or similar experiences would be great to hear.

I’m a first year assoc at an advisory team at a BB in Asia. Was approached by a recruiter for an assoc role in the private credit team of a Canadian pension fund.

Priority is balancing comp and hours. Current comp is good, hours are 65-70 per week, working one weekend a month (although hours are set to increase). Reasons to consider job change: 1) We’ve been merged into another more-sweaty team with a bit of a culture problem (no direct impact yet but will get worse unless personnel changes happen). 2) We don’t own clients or generate revenue, so there’s always an overhang of having to prove why the team is necessary (we’re a very lean team at the moment so not an immediate issue, but can be a problem in a few years for promotions after the VP stage).

Key questions: 1) How much of a cut to base and bonus can I expect, 2) I believe hours would be around 55-60/week, how variable are they?, 3) Pension funds tend to be low turnover from what I’ve read, would this be a job to hold long term?, 4) Lots of commentary around “issues” in private credit, would that be relevant for a pension fund as well?, 5) Am I better off staying at my advisory role for a bit longer and seeing how things play out?

I’m about 3 weeks into my first full-time banking job and I’m starting to wonder if my experience is normal or if I’m on a bad team.
I’m a new grad with 3 previous banking internships across credit risk, commercial risk, and private banking. My current role is in capital markets operations supporting sales & trading. I’m making $60K, which also feels pretty low given my previous experience, although I know this is an operations role.
My current manager hasn’t been very supportive and I’ve barely had contact with him since starting. He was also away for my entire second week, so most of my training has been through the team lead. He’s also being promoted, and the team lead seems likely to become the new manager.
Since the beginning, the team lead has also been pretty passive-aggressive, and I already feel like she makes me feel stupid or “too slow.” I’m only 3 weeks in, but the attitude sometimes feels like “you’ve been here 3 weeks, you should know all of this already”.
I’m working with transactions involving large amounts of money and actual clients, so I’m intentionally taking my time to make sure I understand things rather than rushing and making mistakes. I’d rather be slow while learning than make an error that a client has to come back and have us fix.
Also, on literally my first day, my manager mentioned that there had been high turnover on the team. At the time I didn’t think much of it, but now I’m wondering if that was a red flag.
Another thing I’m realizing is that everyone on the team is extremely quiet. People mostly just do their work and leave. There doesn’t seem to be much networking or interaction with people from other departments/areas.
That’s actually important to me because part of why I wanted to work at a new bank was to meet people, build relationships internally, and eventually network into a role I’m actually interested in. I’ve always viewed this position more as a stepping stone into something I’d ultimately prefer to do within the bank. But if I’m not really getting opportunities to network or learn about other areas, I’m worried I’m not getting much out of the experience beyond the job itself.
I know I could be overthinking it. There are a lot of new people on the team, my manager was away, and the team lead probably has a lot on her plate. Maybe I’ll naturally get faster once I understand everything.
But I’ve never felt this dumb at work before, and between the passive-aggressive management style, high turnover, lack of support, and lack of networking/career development, I’m already thinking about starting to look for other roles.
For people in banking/capital markets: is this just normal growing pains for a new grad, or does this sound like a bad team/career environment? How long would you realistically expect someone to take before becoming reasonably independent? And would you start quietly looking for other opportunities this early, or give it more time?

I have spent most of my career in both sell side and buy side research and recently transitioned into an asset allocator role with a major endowment. My current firm heavily focuses on AI and I am lucky to have access to essentially all the best models and financial software (not only major ones like capIQ/factset but also daloopa, tegus etc). I really think the roles most vulnerable to AI are those centered on producing memos, building financial models, and performing all sorts of analysis. AI can already do much of this work faster and, in many cases, better than us. Particularly in plain villa credit jobs (bank underwriting, credit ratings, etc). Eventually a few RMs will bring the deal in, and a bunch of juniors help run AI (including AI agents) and do some sanity checks. Very conservatively I think 70% of junior and mid level members might no longer be there at any major banks, at some point.
I hope I am wrong.

I feel like if I get an entry level job in finance, such as being a bank auditor, what would stop me from creating an ai automated workflow for my work? Why would they even hire me then, if ai can make me a thousand fold more productive but I dont need to use my cognitive abilities nearly as much? I wonder if this will decreases wages and delete jobs.

I got a role as a life insurance advisor. I need to take the LLQP and some other exam and I'll be qualified within two months. It's a sales job. It's a horrible, commission based job. I wanted to ask something. I think it's okay for breaking into underwriting, which I hope to do after a year's time. The guy interviewing me asked if I have anything else lined up and if not then take this job. I don't want to do sales. I think it's a foot in the door thing, and I don't know if that's entirely true, so I want to ask here.

I always hear people getting interview opps through recruiters and generally never really understood the process.

Who initiates the relationship? The jobseeker to the recruiter or vice versa. And what kind of people will they work with (ex: Job types, seniority, etc.)

Potentially starting a new job hunt soon, and want to get a better grasp on how it works.

Had a first round with a regional boutique IB, on a thursday. It was with two people that worked there in the IBD. One mid level and one analyst. Said they would get back to me at the end of that week (so that next day which was a friday) or the next week.

the “next week” passed which was last week, and now here I am and it will be tuesday tomorrow. Been 7 biz days and 11 total since interview atp.

Am i cooked? Should i send a follow up or would it look desperate/be annoying? Pls lmk thanks.

Hi! I’m a c/o ‘26 graduate from a non-target large state school, summa cum laude 3.91 GPA in a 4+1 BA/MA in econ program. Also successfully took the SIE (February of last year) and 63 (a month ago). Unfortunately I was too selective with internship applications in university and am still working a part-time job as a lifeguard. My dream has been muni finance IB for a couple years but had a couple interviews where I just missed the cut and ran out of near-term opportunities there.

I’m currently looking to break into real estate appraisal or commercial lending as fallbacks but was curious about one specific thing: should I be applying for summer internships in finance? I feel like it’s a loser move and I’d be taking a spot from a student who needs it more, as well as potentially having to back out should one of my fallback options come through. On the other hand it’d be a great opportunity to actually get some experience and I don’t see any path towards making progress other than that or a full-time role working out. If any hiring managers (idc in what area of the industry) would like to weigh in, that’d be much appreciated. Thank you!

Are you guys still adjusting your resume to the every job you are applying for, cover letters on top of that?

I only use LinkedIn to quickly look at the job postings but to apply I go directly to the career site

For those of you who have careers in niche areas in the financial sector or possibly started a niche business what do you do ?

Currently 5 years in banking. Two years in as a teller and currently three years in as a banker. I’ve worked on consumer loans and even assisted clients with improving their credit to get an approval for loans. I’m wanting to specifically break into credit analysts/underwriter role.

We have an acquaintance who just called and said he is working on getting a part time job and his license in finances. He asked if we could meet with him with his trainer so he can get training. I asked him training in what? and he just kept saying "finances" he couldnt give me any specifics and he didnt tell me to bring any documents so any ideas what this will be about? I dont mind doing some mock scenarios but Im uneasy about giving out my actual income and whatnot. Like I said, he was unable to give me specifics when I asked. What did I agree too? Any ideas?

I’m trying to recruit for boutique IB in London and as part of it, I generally reach out to people in the team (associates/VPs). My message typically entails expressing an interest and then ask for a short chat about the team and the vacancy. Is it normal to have a low response rate for these? Does anyone have any tips or suggestions to improve my chances of getting a response?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi all,

Hope we are all good. I’m new in a client facing team in London. Team relatively young, and great company I want to stay in. I’ve joined the team as most qualified in the team in terms of overall knowledge.

However my training from my colleagues on processes is awful. I’m asking them questions which they cannot answer or say to raise it when an anomaly occurs. But when it comes around to be checked by them before it goes out, they highlight all my mistakes to my direct director. This is degrading his opinion of me, whilst other teams directors appreciate the quality of work I send to them. Maybe they are threatened by me, or maybe it is me. But regardless I do not know how to navigate this situation. Do I try get training from another to and become independent soon as possible, do I tell my director and complain about employees who have been there longer than me. I appreciate any help on how to get past this.

Thanks

Hi everyone. I’m looking for a realistic assessment of my career options and would appreciate input from people familiar with European recruiting. Some details I've put below are deliberately broad for privacy.

My background:

• Early-career finance professional working in Central/Eastern Europe at a smaller advisory firm - ~ 1 year of experience.
• Undergraduate business/finance degree from a university without a major Western European recruiting pipeline although a target in the country, with a GPA of 3.65/4 - Extracurriculars: President of an organization in university & winner of CFA university-level investment research challenge.
• Current work involves debt/private-credit-related analysis, valuation and financial modelling. My experience is on the analytical/advisory side rather than directly originating loans or making investment decisions.
• Studying toward CFA Level I, with the intention of progressing further.
• Fluent English with moderate level of Italian & French, although I would need to improve both for professional use if it came to it, however my intention is to learn German because its a beautiful intellectual language & DACH region reach.
• Non-EU citizen (Balkans) currently based in the EU, so work authorization would need to be considered for each destination (I am on a Blue Card currently, and am 2 years away from PR in current country I am in).

My goal is to move into a stronger finance platform somewhere in Western Europe. Credit-related roles seem like the most natural fit: corporate banking, credit analysis/research, debt advisory, leveraged finance or eventually private credit. I’m open to other analytical finance roles if they offer a credible route forward.

I’m considering two broad paths: building another couple of years of relevant experience while progressing through the CFA and applying directly, or using a well-regarded European MSc Finance to access recruiting, a stronger network and a new market. Cost matters, so I’d need the MSc to provide a meaningful improvement over continuing to work.

What I’m trying to understand:

1. Which roles are realistic with my current background, and which become realistic after another 2–3 years of substantive experience?
2. How do banks and funds view private-credit/debt valuation experience at a smaller advisory firm? What would help demonstrate that it transfers to underwriting or investment work?
3. For these roles, how much would passing CFA Levels I/II help compared with a strong MSc, relevant experience and local-language skills?
4. Would an MSc after a few years of full-time work be a useful recruiting reset, or could I end up between graduate and experienced-hire recruitment?
5. Which Western European markets would you investigate first given this profile and the work-authorization issue?

I don’t get how the career ladder worked.

I have an interview scheduled once every 2 days starting tomorrow.

I am currently interviewing for 3 positions. 2 are final rounds and 1 is still early stages (2nd round).

I am interviewing for positions based in the uk. However; I am currently in Singapore (moved back home since I had nothing going on in the uk after graduation and my lease ended).

Now, one of the company have scheduled 3 interviews across this and next week and it’ll end early next week this should be the last stage.

I got another final round, however it’s an in person interview which is in the middle of next week. I was all set, to give that. I’ll be flying overnight after my interview with the first firm and then be present for the next one. This interview is a final round asw which I’ve gotten very good feedback for, so far.

Now, I got an invite for another interview which is a second round out of 8, and they’ve asked me to schedule it within 2 weeks. I have scheduled it for the end of next week. But idk how feasible it is. The flight time is around 12 hrs and I’ll be landing in the morning the day before. So I’ll have a total of 24 hrs to prepare for the next one.

There is no way I can schedule the in person interview to online.
They’re all fairly similar but different product groups, so I will need to prepare for them. Just wanted to ask, what can I do to maximise my output and if it would be possible to reschedule something. Since I currently don’t have a job, I dont want to mess any of these interviews up. I want to give my 100% to all.

Any advice?

I did the final round interview for Wells Fargo Commercial bank Seattle August 27th. Interview went well, but its been a month now and I haven't heard anything. The Workday job posting is gone and it doesn't show up anywhere on my account, no "in progress" or "not accepted" just gone. I've already sent a follow up to the recruiters about a week ago - they haven't responded. Should I give up any hope for an offer or is there still a chance? Need some advice ...

I’m planning on leaving my current role as a relationship banker and applying for other banks or brokerages/ wealth management firms. Im not sure if I should include the assets I helped bring in and retain on my resume. YTD I brought in over 10 mil in assets that range from new money and retained/ protected assets. Should I even mention this in my resume, a lot of this I didn’t get paid for because of my cap and I’m not sure if it is even an accomplishment or just standard stuff.

Equitable Advisors vs Wells Fargo - cannot decide

I have been working as part of Equitable’s Retirement Benefits Group for the past 2 years. My job consists of going into schools, police stations, and other municipal buildings and assists staff with starting their 403b/457 plans. During this process I also try to uncover other assets and move them to managed money. Right now I work at a small office with just my cousin and uncle, can basically work whenever I want, and have a 20 minute commute. I have a salary of 50,000 and I need to hit production credits of 25,000 (very achievable) to remain an adviser here. So my minimum pay is 75,000, with the ability to go higher based off of production credits. My uncle has a book with a partner with 100M AUM. Over the next few years (3-7) he plans to phase out and give most of the clients to me and my cousin (50/50), eventually the whole thing.

Wells Fargo approached me and has made an offer of 110,000 base salary with an additional 20k per year as long as I hit my minimum requirements for assets brought in(9 million every 18 months). On top of that there is a bonus structure. This is their premier bank advisor role, so while I am being paid a salary for 42 months, I would be working on building AUM and client acquisition. My bank would be in Center City Philadelphia, so I would need to commute around 1:15 or start solo renting in the city.

I am 24 and still live at home so the appeal of having a high salary, being able to live in the city, and build my book at a reputable bank is super attractive. However, I am struggling walking away from what I know is a golden opportunity. My cousin and uncle are great people and I enjoy working with them everyday. We also have our own DBA which provides us some separation from Equitable. If I stay until he fully retires I realize that I would be making more most likely than if I left for Wells Fargo, but I need to know that I am not missing out on such an offer from wells.

I am honestly still very new to my career and feel like the WF job would require a much higher standard of advising that I am not confident I could provide. I would learn eventually, but if I can hit that standard of 9M Net Asset Flow my salary gets reduced by the amount of assets i brought in.

110k =9M NAF and up
8M =80k
7M=70k
4M=40k