These days, more equity analyst vacancies at all levels are advertised online than ever before. Along with popping up from time to time via standard recruitment websites, there are also specialist financial vacancy portals which offer nothing but the latest news, info and vacancies from the world’s financial industries. Suffice to say they’ve already become the instant and in many ways the only go-to for a thousand and one applicants looking to nail a quality post, which, when you think about it can be a blessing and a curse at the same time.
But here’s the thing – no matter what kind of job it is you’re looking to land and at what level, it might surprise you to learn that a great many or even most vacancies are never, ever published online or anywhere else. It’s a culture a great many would like to see ousted once and for all given the opportunity, but the idea of allocating posts and earmarking individuals for posts long before the posts were ever likely to be advertised is more popular than ever before – especially among higher-end industry areas.
Which begs the obvious question – how does anyone at ground-level stand a chance at finding and landing these jobs?
The answer – targeted job searching.
Removing the Random
In terms of what targeted job searching is, the phrase essentially refers to a process whereby instead of sitting around and waiting for random jobs to appear, you go out and look for the precise jobs you’re interested in. To apply via recruitment sites is both a good idea and can help anyone looking for a job to get started, but in terms of finding the exact job of your dreams…well, waiting for it to pop up is a bit like waiting for a lottery win.
So many high-level jobs get snagged by professionals and newcomers alike not because they stood out from the crowd with their applications, but because they were already known to those who were doing the hiring. Suffice to say, this is a pretty tough nut to crack on the whole as you can’t just barge in and make friends, but this doesn’t mean that with the necessary time and effort you don’t stand every chance of getting your name, face and talents known to those who matter.
The Targeted Job Search Process
As for how it’s done, there are basically only three simple steps to the process which are as follows:
- Your Chosen Posts – First of all, you need to work out the specifics of what you want to do and where. When you look for jobs online, you inevitably modify your expectations and desires in accordance with what’s there. With a targeted job search, the first step is to think of the companies you want to work for, where you’re willing to work and what kind of post you’d be happy to accept. Once you have your career ‘shopping list’ in order, you have a much better chance of taking home what you wanted.
- Research Companies – Next up, you’ll want to draft a list of a good 40 or 50 companies who you’d ideally like to work for, not chosen at random but rather selected in accordance with your passions and expertise. The simple fact of the matter is that you’ll never, ever get far with a company you don’t believe in or have complete and total respect for, so it’s important to choose only those with which you share their values and general ethics.
- Reach Out – The final stage in the process is of course the hardest…you need to make meaningful connections. This often means a fairly extensive period of research using every available resource at your fingertips to find out who makes the hiring decisions and who you need to impress most – bearing in mind that these are usually two very different people. Find them, track down their contact details and do your best to get them to give you a few minutes of their time. Hit it off and you’ll stand a better chance than all the CVs and applications in the world could ever afford you.
Of course it goes without saying that these kinds of job searches are long-winded and hard-fought to say the least, but when did anyone ever say that landing the job of your dreams would be easy? Dedicate yourself and have the patience to keep on trying until it pays off – the day it does, you’ll be more than glad you made the effort.