Graduating students - What are your plans?

JTLP said:

LOL is all I can say.

I got myself a cheap ticket...leaving for Europe again mid year...don't know when I'll be home...don't care really. Job market is shot, grad positions are shot...the sky is falling ra ra ra.

I'm young and there is nothing I can do about this mess. I have no obligations (being only 22), I've got my life ahead of me and why not visit friends overseas and be happy when everybody has a doom and gloom mentality. By the time I come back things may have improved, I can get a menial job, work my way up and into a position and crack through the system this way. I don't see grad positions getting any easier...I actually see them getting harder with the backlog of people graduating and not finding work. There is more then 1 way to climb the mountain...

On a side note Prawn...perhaps you could do fruit picking around Australia or something of that ilk? I am planning to drop into France and pick grapes...awesome fun (although hard work), free accomm and food, 100 euro a day and you meet some great people.

Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat as JTLP. Graduating in July with a Commerce degree.

Purchased an around the world ticket with stop offs in Europe and the US. Open ended ticket, pretty much i will come home when the job market swings back around. Looking to backpack through Europe for 6 months and then do a season on Whistler, then who knows. No point twiddling my thumbs here in Melbourne, may aswell get out and amongst it while I'm still obligation free.

Uni is over, now what...

Ok so I have finished a commerce degree... I have a lot of passes, a couple of credits a couple of distinctions....

The harder the class, the better my grades, don't ask me why....

I actually managed to get a Pass in 'Introduction to Financial Planning', the same semester I got a distinction in 'Advanced Financial Planning'

I have spoken to a couple of people that have been through graduate programs at banks, none of them thought it was retrospectivly a good idea... Also because I don't have a credit average getting accepted may be an issue...

I am currently a mortgage broker, I get paid an hourly rate, no commission and to be honest I make more per hour waiting tables on the weekend. I like to be able to say to a client 'I am not making a cent from recommending you this product'...

Ok now to the crux of the matter...

I do not want a position that involves sales, it is not that I wouldn't be good at it, I am honest, and people can sense that, but I never want to be in a position where I can do something that is not in a clients best interests to make myself a quid, why? because I would hate myself if I took the money....

Is there a position within a financial institution that is not focused on the amount of business you write?

I do not want to be a mortgage broker in 2 years time...

~Kieran

I have a Economics Degree from Canada, I entered to job market in July 2008 as an entry level Paraplanner. Not at all bragging its very entry level $37k.

I think number one, no matter what you have (degree, trading experience) its important to have initiative.

Here is what I did:

I got the yellow pages and phoned up every stockbroking firm in town and every Financial Planning Firm in town. Yes I'm serious, I did, I know it sounds stupid.

Seriously after that, within two weeks I had 4 interviews, and my phone continued to ring afterwards. (most of them didn't even look at my resume).

Simply I would just ask, "I'm really interested in "financial planning/whatever" and I would like to talk to the manager about my strengths…blah blah blah.

after the 20th phone call I got pretty good at it. hahaha.

I really don't think getting a job has anything to do with the economy.....
sorry to burst everyone's bubble. (reading Chris Gardner's book).

Thats my theory anyway.