Entry level employment

[Spongle]

Hi

I'm a part time student who is currently looking for part time work and have a few questions if you'd indulge me.

Ok... so I'm currently studying a Bachelor of science majoring in chemistry as a mature age student (hit 30 yesterday) and as It's going to take quite some time for me to be qualified enough to be able to work in my chosen field I need to find work where I can.

Share trading/investment has always been interesting to me and have spent the last year learning as much about it as possible. I have familiarised myself with charting software and and have opened my own commsec acc although it has gone unused thus far. I've been paper trading for a bit and the results have been good but most importantly it I think it could be work I'd enjoy.

My previous job was as an assistant to a statistician who works for the dept. of education basically doing the grunt work ie processing/checking data, constructing and maintaing speadsheets and other excel related nerdisms. Before that I worked at an engineering firm data checking schematics on stupidly large bits of paper and liasing with clients from time to time etc.

So to sum it all up I have never worked in finance, have a very good grasp of statistics and advanced maths, am totally proficient in all microsoft office programs and other specialist programs I won't go into here and have a good knowledge of all your basic trading/investment concepts.

The only job I seem to qualify for (in some cases) is as a Desk Assistant to a group of stock brokers which is basically what I'm after. It seems an rg 146 would be desirable and I have plenty of experience in very similar roles, just not finance roles.

So what say you?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[Spongle]

This will be much harder than I thought haha. Seems even ****kicker positions of this type are difficult to get without some kind of experience in finance...

May have to try a different route to actually accrue some experience in this industry, not much else I find quite as interesting though.

I find this sort of thing a matter of getting to the interview stage and manipulating the situation in your favour...

 

[mazzatelli]

So to sum it all up I have never worked in finance, have a very good grasp of statistics and advanced maths, am totally proficient in all microsoft office programs and other specialist programs I won't go into here and have a good knowledge of all your basic trading/investment concepts.

The only job I seem to qualify for (in some cases) is as a Desk Assistant to a group of stock brokers which is basically what I'm after. It seems an rg 146 would be desirable and I have plenty of experience in very similar roles, just not finance roles.

At the moment its quite hard to get roles the roles you desire in finance (stock broking, finance etc), there aren't many positions available in Australia unless you move overseas.

If you're background is as you say, try your hand at becoming a quant for a trading desk. There shouldn't be much further need for any training like RG146, salary and bonus is great and guaranteed to be challenging.

With this role they tend to look favorably on those with math/stat backgrounds e.g. physics, engineering. Only chink in your armour is you are doing a BSci, whilst you are competing with people (around the same age range) who have postgrad/PhD qualifications.

But I've seen people like yourself make it through. It never hurts to try.

 

[Spongle]

People my age doing thier Phd or masters I a completely in awe of, whatever it may be that they're studying.
I know i can't really compete with that, but I'm sure they may be an avenue of some sort for me so I'll give it a go.