Ei has been to 3 of our TARGETjobs events and loved them all, read her thoughts, hints and tips!

About me

Name:  Ei Nge Htut         

University: Newnham College, Cambridge

Course: Law

Events attended:
1. TARGETjobs Law – December 2011
2. City law for ethnic minorities – June 2012
3. Women in Investment Management – November 2012

Why did you apply?
I applied for the first law event because I wanted to find out more about a career in commercial law. After attending my university law fair as a fresher, I came away more confused than well informed! Therefore, I thought that a structured, one day event would be a great way to get the specific information I needed. The opportunity to network with representatives from major law and investment management firms seemed too good to pass up. As I had such a positive experience on my first event, I continued to apply for various TARGETjobs events. For these later ones, a real drawing point was the case study or commercial awareness exercises. Although they seemed intimidating at first, I wanted to get used to problem solving on the spot, with a commercial mindset. I thought these group exercises would also be a good trial run for future assessment days.

What were your goals for the day?
My main goal was to ask as many questions as possible. It was really useful to research the firms that I would be meeting. I prepared general questions on the working culture, quality of training and type of work on offer. This enabled me to compare firms quite easily during the application process. For my favourite firms, I did more in depth research, reading up on recent deals or mergers so I could ask interesting questions that reflected my commitment. For these sessions, formal business attire is a must. It is also helpful to have your own notebook on hand so you can take detailed notes throughout the day on each firm. I had a large notebook reserved for these types of events and open days - it was my personal bible during the application process.

It can be nerve racking to network or present on the spot but try to participate as fully as possible. Being well informed of current affairs is important and particularly useful in the presentation exercises.  Group situations can be challenging and almost impossible to prepare for – just be yourself, be assertive and get your opinions across clearly, without overshadowing other members of the group.

                                               Tips for on the day?

1. Make full use of the networking sessions.Talk to trainees about working life and their experience of the application process – these anecdotes are invaluable!

2. Follow up on contacts made. Contact representatives one or two days after the event, thanking them and asking any follow up questions.

3. Get to know other students on the event. These events are more enjoyable when you have a rapport with fellow students – be friendly!

4. Put yourself forward. Be the spokesperson for your group – don’t be shy!

5. Don’t forget about graduate recruitment. Ask all those burning questions about the application process.

What did you learn?
Commercial awareness is a skill that must be developed over time. It is about analysing the information you have from your client’s perspective to achieve the best possible solution.

Are you looking to develop a career in Investment Management? Then look no further than our Women in Investment Management event being held on 21st October 2013! Few spaces remaining - APPLY NOW!

TARGETjobs Weekly News Roundup

Hello and happy Friday,

It’s Harriet writing again to bring you the weekly summary of all the new content here at TARGETjobs online.

Firstly though, I was impressed to see that Alan has now reached £6256.52 from his initial £1 investment. You can follow Alan and his One Pound Challenge here.

But onto the job stuff…

Are you interested in a career in property? Many firms are now opening their graduate schemes, including property giant Cushman & Wakefield. If you’re making an application, check out what to expect from the application form and online tests, as well as our tips for answering Cushman & Wakefield’s application form questions.  

You’ve probably heard of Teach First; the scheme to promote teaching as a desirable career start has proved incredibly popular with graduates. Aiming to replicate this success, new organisation Frontline has been launched to attract fresh talent into social work by using a similar model. If this appeals to you, read our advice on how to get hired by Frontline and why it isn’t a choice for the faint-hearted.

If you would prefer to make your impact on how the country is run, then it’s well worth spending some time learning about how to get a job with the Civil Service Fast Stream. You could find yourself helping to improve employment prospects and defending the country against natural disasters.

The Civil Service Fast Stream accepts a 2.2, but most employers in the finance sector require a 2.1 for entry onto their graduate programmes. If you didn’t make the grade, however, you should check out our updated guide to getting a finance, banking or insurance job with a 2.2, including how to explain any mitigating circumstances.

And finally, before I go (for good, as today is my last day here at TARGETjobs), remember to check out the deadlines for graduate jobs that are closing this week.

Have a great weekend – and a brilliant term at uni if, like me, that’s your next stop.

Got your place booked for IT's not just for the boys event? Zoe attended last year, read her top tips to prepare!

Name: Zoe Redfern

University: University of Lincoln

Course: Mcomp Computer Information Systems (Year 4)

Event attended: IT’s not just for the boys!

Why did you apply?

I applied to IT’s not just for the boys! after reading about it via Twitter and honestly thinking that it would not only help me with my confidence levels and self-esteem; but also how to approach the time when it comes to applying for graduate jobs. I found the life coach extremely useful and it made me feel a lot better about being a minority studying IT.

How did you prepare?

After being accepted on to the attendance list for the event I researched all the companies that were attending and looked at what opportunities they all had to offer in the specific areas that I was interested in. Being involved with Microsoft since my second year (Microsoft Student Partner and Windows 8 Student Ambassador); I was especially interested in their graduate programs and whether my extra-curricular efforts would be of interest to them. I made a list of questions for each of the companies and then a list to ask the recent graduates that were on each of the schemes at each of the companies. It was great to hear things from a female perspective as well as to learn that not all of them had an IT or Technology based degree.

I was already going to wear business style dress as all the sponsors were attending. I submitted a question to the panel and mine was chosen to be read out. (I asked for advice on how a female in technology can make her mark in the years to come.)

Do you have any preparation tips?

1) Research the companies that are attending!

2) Be armed with a pen and paper

3) Go with questions that you aim to get answers to

4) Be interested in all the opportunities that are available (speak to everyone you can and make the most of this)

5) Aim to keep a good posture and facial expression throughout. You will meet lots of fascinating people who would also love to hear about your experiences and career goals.

What did you learn?

How to present myself in interviews and that it’s actually a great thing to be part of a minority! The event did absolute wonders for my self-esteem and confidence going into the most stressful part of my degree.

There are still places left for the events in October and November!  APPLY NOW!

A day in the life of a sales & trading intern

An intern from the finance-interns community, blogs about his typical day as a sales & trading intern 

5.30 am – Turn off the alarm and sleepily make my way down to the train station.

6.10 am – Jump on the DLR to work, it’s early but at least you get a seat!

6.45 am – Arrive at the office.  I would ordinarily try to arrive before the rest of the team in order to prepare for the morning meeting and get the various documents needed ready so that everyone is set up for the rest of the day. Also spend a bit of time checking Bloomberg, FT and Reuters for the overnight headline news.

7.20 am – The morning meeting is a global conference call initiated by the Head of Trading in order to bring the desk up to speed with the market movements that occurred overnight. The Asian offices often provide this information. Then the London Research and Strategy team outlines their opinions of the market and their forecasts of key data being released during London trading hours.

8 am – As I worked on a Foreign Exchange (FX) Sales and Trading desk, a market that is open 24 hours a day, the London office would ask the other offices around the world to provide liquidity to clients during the night. This risk taken by the overseas offices needs to be transferred to the London office, via a process called Back-to-Back trade execution.  My role as an intern encompassed ensuring that these deals were inputted into the system. The number of these deals that needed to be inputted varied on a day-to-day basis. Consequently, sometimes it would take a couple of hours; sometimes it would be only a few minutes.

9.30 am – Now was the time to nip out and grab some breakfast as normally this was a brief lull in the day as the market had often already executed the deals that would allow them to hold the trading position for the day.

10 am – My role also involved executing the daily fixes on Non-Deliverable Forward trades. These deals are USD exchanges for traditionally illiquid currencies such as Korean Won, Chilean Peso, Brazilian Real and Russian Rouble to name a few. Due to the illiquid nature of the markets, it means that large volume trades could have a significant impact on the exchange rate of the currency versus the US Dollar. As a result the Central Bank of each of these nations fixes the exchange rate on the currency pair in order to ensure that the exchange rate doesn’t spiral out of control. My responsibility was to apply the fixing rate to each trade once I have accessed the published rate on Thomson Reuters.

11 am – Often I would try to do a lot of reading and research because the trading floor often has high periods of activity but can often, particularly on US Public Holidays be exceptionally quiet. Therefore, I would often speak to the various people on the floor, both Middle office and Front Office in order to hear their thoughts on the market as well as reading the Research publications that would be sent out by the In-House Research team. I personally found that the Trading floor was the perfect place to build and develop my knowledge of the Sales and Trading component of Investment Banking as it provided you with so many sources of quality information.

12.30 pm – It’s about half way through the day now, probably a good time to go and grab some lunch. Often it would involve grabbing some lunch for the Traders, because if it was a particularly volatile day then they might be unable to leave their desk in order to react and maintain a positive P+L.

1.30 pm – Every month would be the ECB Monetary Policy announcement. With the turbulent nature of the Eurozone area in the last couple of years, during my internship this was often the most important announcement and the TV sets on the trading floor and desk were all tuned into Bloomberg to listen to any statements Mario Draghi (the ECB president) would make giving an insight into the potential future policy decisions of the ECB.

2 pm – A key aspect of my role revolved around correcting any booking errors that would mean that my firm was unable to confirm and match off the trade details we have in our system with those details being confirmed by the counterparty. As a result, Back Office would inform me of the incorrect deals, I would then liaise with the Salesperson or Trader who executed the deal in order to find out if we were correct or incorrect. If we were incorrect then I would be charged with the responsibility of changing the details on the trade. This meant I had to be highly accurate as any amendments I made that were in correct would lead to a misrepresented Profit & Loss figure shown in their dealing book. Therefore, it was of the utmost importance that I was 100% accurate. Furthermore, any errors I made meant I was just creating more work for myself!

5 pm – Once the orders could be passed to the US office, because traditional London trading hours had now come to an end, it meant I could begin my end of day checks; including checking my trades had been input into the system correctly and ensuring there were no trades that were mismatching.

6 pm – Typically I would try to be one of the last people in the office, ensuring that I had checked with Middle Office and Back Office and that there was nothing outstanding that needed my immediate attention. If I got the all clear, it was time to head home for the evening and get ready for another early start in the morning! 

The TARGETjobs Weekly Career Advice Roundup

Hello and welcome to our weekly career advice roundup blog. This has been an exciting week for us as it marks the start of fair season. For the next three months our four event executives will be touring the UK visiting freshers’ fairs and careers’ fairs, coming to talk to you about starting your career, giving out our hot-off-the-press career publications and signing you up to our new-look site. This way you can start to receive our ‘How to Get Hired’ and daily job alerts emails.

We love to meet with students, talk face to face about your concerns and career dreams so please pop along to your freshers’/careers fair and come and say hello to our very friendly team. Want to meet them? Check out our Facebook album where every week we will keep you updated on their latest whereabouts. 

Talking of fairs, for those of you planning on going to careers fairs this autumn, make sure you make the most of them. These fairs are a great place to network with employers and make your first impression count. So make good use of them.

And what better way to leave a good first impression than dressing to impress and being prepared. We are here to tell how to do both.  

On a more sector-specific note:

 Calling all aspiring solicitors and future barristers: make sure you read this advice before heading to your campus law fairs this autumn. 

 If you are specifically interested in retail management, we’ve got some great advice for you on how to show recruiters you’d be perfect for the role.

 Is construction your passion? Read about four ways to get your foot in the door in the construction, civil engineering or quantity surveying industry. 

And if healthcare is your career path of choice then you’ll be interested to know that for the third year running, the NHS has topped The Guardian UK 300 poll, as the top graduate employer to work for. 

     Closing business:

As usual we update you on Alan Radbourne’s One Pound Challenge grand total after 16 weeks. It’s a whooping £5,537.22 Find his latest news here.

Want to know which graduate job applications are closing this coming week? Here is our weekly graduate job deadline roundup. Best of luck if you are applying this week. 

Hope you all have an enjoyable weekend, Jackie J