I Applied to 1,000 Finance Jobs to Test the Labor Market

I applied to 1000 finance jobs, to see how easy or not so easy, this job market really is. Most companies are trying to hire right now, so the hypothesis is I would be able to get plenty of interview requests or job offers. I needed a resume that was good, but not amazing. Just something that would be acceptable to most hiring managers in finance, and would allow us to get a solid idea on what the job market looks like. To make things easy, I used my own resume as a template, then made some small adjustments to make it more general. Next we needed a name for me. I went with something that could be male or female, and could be a white or black person. . I also wanted to test the market for a college student vs someone with a bit of experience. So we made 2 versions of the same resume. In one, Dakota is just about to graduate and is looking for his or her first full time job, and in the other Dakota has 3 years of experience as a junior analyst. Finally, I needed a phone number and email address. Got a couple weird looks buying a burner phone from Walmart, but we got it done.

There were a couple of interesting trends that I noticed and kept track of while filling out all of these job applications. First, I was a bit surprised by how often the job application listed the salary for the position I was applying to. In my opinion, it makes perfect sense to show the salary of a position when you are trying to get applicants to apply to it. Doing so will eliminate a lot of headache after the interview process if someone had different expectations on the pay going into it. But I just didn't expect to see it as often as I did. Of the 1,000 jobs I applied to, 571 of them showed me what the expected salary would be for the position, which I thought was pretty cool. Next, there were far fewer jobs than I expected, offering to let candidates work from home either partially or all of the time. I know in what is now May of 2022 that the pandemic has mostly subsided, but I still expected to see more flexibility from employers given how common working from home has been for the last 2 years. Just 259 of the 1,000 jobs offered a work from home arrangement. Maybe working from home is just more of a tech industry thing, whereas more business in the finance field is done face to face.

If you have an idea of something you want me to cover in depth, please let me know because I take your requests seriously. Will be back with more CFA Exam tips in a couple of weeks so please submit more questions you would like to hear answered. Love you all!

- AJ

Let’s connect:

[thexthaz]

For those in a hurry there was about a 9% rate of response out of 1, 000 applications. 90% of the jobs were entry level.
Of the 571 Jobs, avg was $48, 000 Salary.
Of the 92 Jobs that responded was $46, 000.

Thank you for making this video @ AJ.

[Frederick]

$50k/year for a finance job is incredibly depressing and confounding. Finance is supposed to be a high paying industry. Maybe only at the Morgan Stanleys and Goldman Sachs of the world.

[yuiwang]

For the effort of submitting 1000 applications, you absolutely won my respect! I recently started look for a new position (FP&A) and I can share some datapoints/thoughts:
1. Interview process. Big tech companies tend to have a longer and more selective interview process - it took me roughly 1.5 months to complete 5+ rounds of interviews with one big tech firm; while it only took 1.5 weeks to land an offer with another fortune 1000 company for similar positions. So the effort required sometimes can play a big role in the process, and generally it’s worth the effort for young professionals to focus more on the quality vs quantity - that adds to your comment re: cover letter, thank you letter and etc.
2. Immigration status. It’s my observation that Whether or not an applicant needs visa sponsorship can play a big factor in Finance (it’s not a big issue in tech though as most tech companies are willing to sponsor). Would be curious to see how your result for “interview/acceptance rate” change if you make that distinction in application. :)

Lastly I do want to add that I really enjoy watching your videos! They are so informative and helpful and getting more and more fun!

[gracedong]

some next-level commitment and awesomeness

[noahsalgado]

awesome video. thank you ! this job market is hard out here.

[gregorybainathsah]

Damn, this guy sent out 1000 resumes just for a good YT video, That's some real dedication!
Awesome video, this gives me some practical
perspective on the job market. Very useful stuff AJ

[kateallen]

This video did not get enough hype! Thank you for all of the work!

[ying]

My god, subbed. You make good content and this commitment is amazing

[luispowellg]

This is great 😂😂😂 I have been watching your videos for more than a year and never subscribed with this, you got a new subscriber

[tofigmammadov]

Wow, what a great idea! I really hope you get better success with number of views/likes for this video than with 9% success rate on your experiment!

[Susanthebrand]

i am here in 2024, and all i can say is i am in awe of the work you put into making this video, and i appreciate you for making this video. thank you

[janreichenbach]

It's remains supercompetitive at the top employers like Blackstone or Goldman Sachs because they receive hundreds of applications for one entry level position.

Even if everyone held the CFA with all three levels + a Stanford or Harvard MBA, not everyone would be able to land a job there -> supply and demand. Sad but true.

At least, the CFA charter is relatively moderately priced.

[makaylamachacek]

Is there anyway you could release the exact resume that you use? It would be relevant to see what exact experience you listed/with what companies. Also- which school did you list for the new graduate? All of those would be huge factors that would play into it

[Denis-vrsh]

Reference to the office movie... the best

[amit-btki]

Having passed cfa l2 but not having a degree from a 'prestigious' college, it's become so tough to find entry level finance roles in good companies with a decent pay. It's disheartening.

[rachelsmith]

Thanks for asking I need some advice about getting through ATS for the interviews. I do great in person but can't seem to get to that interview.

[renewells]

It is Deere & Company ... "John Deere" is a trade name owned by Deere & Co.

[pradeepbhatnagar]

As a professional I find the lecture vry incredible nd outstanding bt.there r limitations too in recruitment.To get skill nd trained worker is a difficult task though there r different Methodologies in recruitment process in brief.The concepts abt.the job applied should be clear cut rt.from the basic talent approach in nutshell in my views.Vry. inspiring nd useful lecture.Thanx👍

[talhaahmad]

Pwc US hires from Pakistan expwcer senior associate on 90k!
Those of my seniors made it great I must say

[almaaune]

Did you mention where you applied for jobs? Mostly through indeed, or linked in? Great video!