I live in Germany at the moment. I do not require a work permit for the EU or UK. Language must be a reason for Germany since I could not do business in German, but all my application is done in English. Anyway I applied to many jobs in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium as well. I applied in all ways I could think of: directly to the jobs which I saw advertised on monster or efinancialcareers, I applied to banks directly, and I contacted recruiters. I did not just apply for FO positions, but also all kinds of jobs in Risk, etc.

tavisor, do you know if there is any way to find a job in your home country, Romania? There could be some brand names operating in the region that hire locally. Even if it is less than optimal, this could be a way to step over the 1yr experience barrier, wouldn't it? Did you applying to quant dev positions?

The horse has to come to the river to drink water not the other way round. The main problem you have is you are far off geographically from quant jobs. You have hit a dead end , the only way to break this, is to apply for MFEs in UK/US.

I would go there gladly! I applied for lots of jobs in the UK. Basically I applied to all the jobs that I could find on the net which did not require prior experience. There are very few of those. I would also like the USA. I did my Ph.D. there and liked living in the USA very much. I think my chances in the USA are close to zero (not that across the ocean I had better luck so far) because I would need a work visa. But doesn't the financial district in Frankfurt count? Shouldn't there be many jobs in FFM as well?

Regarding Romania. I had a talk with someone from the Deutsche Bank team when I had that interview in FFM. He was saying that the economic/legal climate back home is not suitable for this sort of stuff. and since we are talking about Romania... it is very possible that HR people are biased negatively towards people with Romanian citizenship. I am not sure if this affects my application as well, but I tend to think that it is possible. There is a lot of crap that appears in the media (and I read some stories from UK newspapers). I still hope that people who do the hiring think deeper than that.

The way I see, working for a year in a Romanian branch of an international IB is better than having no experience at all, and may give you the edge over the rest of the herd. Even if that proves not to be a real quant job. I bet Romania has a few investment funds that hire mathematicians/physicists. Of course, I could be wrong, and a work experience such as that may even hurt your CV. I have no first-hand experience at all, I am someone who will be in a similar situation as you are now very soon.Have you considered Asia?

I think DevonFangs may have a good point. The lack of work experience may be a deciding factor but then again there are also numerous other reasons that may play a part too. I'm barely a year out of university and I keep getting at least 2-3 calls or e-mails a week from recruiters for jobs in London so the demand is definitely there.

QuoteOriginally posted by: tavisorI would go there gladly! I applied for lots of jobs in the UK. Basically I applied to all the jobs that I could find on the net which did not require prior experience. There are very few of those. I would also like the USA. I did my Ph.D. there and liked living in the USA very much. I think my chances in the USA are close to zero (not that across the ocean I had better luck so far) because I would need a work visa. But doesn't the financial district in Frankfurt count? Shouldn't there be many jobs in FFM as well?dude, if u want to work in any industry u should move to one of the centers of that industry, e.g. silicon valley for IT and D.C. for arms industry. that will bring u unlimited opportunities. don't be lazy or stingy, finish everything u do now and move over to London. it's a simple world, if u want to make more money u have to take more risk.

...dude... I live in Germany. We were just talking about back home because I was suggested to try there. It is not about being lazy, but I can't just move to London and hope for the best. It is very easy for someone to say it, but unless you are financially secure and the costs of "just moving to London" are not such a big deal things are not that easy.

QuoteOriginally posted by: tavisor...dude... I live in Germany. We were just talking about back home because I was suggested to try there. It is not about being lazy, but I can't just move to London and hope for the best. It is very easy for someone to say it, but unless you are financially secure and the costs of "just moving to London" are not such a big deal things are not that easy.let me repeat one last time: if u want to make more money, take more risk.

QuoteOriginally posted by: linguafrancaQuoteOriginally posted by: tavisor...dude... I live in Germany. We were just talking about back home because I was suggested to try there. It is not about being lazy, but I can't just move to London and hope for the best. It is very easy for someone to say it, but unless you are financially secure and the costs of "just moving to London" are not such a big deal things are not that easy.let me repeat one last time: if u want to make more money, take more risk.I think a modified version of the converse is true - If you take more risk, there is a positive probability that you would make more money than if you took no risk at all.

I have a similar question. I have had two phone interviews but they didn't go well, but I just need more practice. I need to be able to get more interviews. I'm working with 2 recruiters now. My question is whether moving to New York would help my case: e.g. more interviews, easier to get on-site interviews etc...?I'm an immigrant, and if I move to NY, I would need to find temporary jobs to support myself. I wonderif anybody know how easy or hard to do this?

tavisor,there are definitely many more jobs in london than in frankfurt. Most of the German banks have their quant operations in London, let alone all the other banks. And yes its ridiculous to look for a quant job in romania. The fact that you are Romanian will have little bearing on your application ( apart from people not knowing the good romanian uni's - but you did PhD in US...). The fact that you are applying for jobs in London from Germany will have a big effect. How are people supposed to interview you? over the phone - you fly over? Given the choice between interviewing someone in person and over the phone, people are going to choose to interview people in person- your cv goes to the bottom of the pile. So I agree with linguafranca, you really need to move to London... But why don't you try talking to some headhunters and get their opinions.

QuoteOriginally posted by: spv205Given the choice between interviewing someone in person and over the phone, people are going to choose to interview people in person- your cv goes to the bottom of the pile.Even for local candidates, the first one or two interviews are invariably on the phone. This is to make sure that the person is worth bringing in to meet with several people, who will each spend an hour or so of their time.QuoteOriginally posted by: linguafrancaQuoteOriginally posted by: tavisor...dude... I live in Germany. We were just talking about back home because I was suggested to try there. It is not about being lazy, but I can't just move to London and hope for the best. It is very easy for someone to say it, but unless you are financially secure and the costs of "just moving to London" are not such a big deal things are not that easy.let me repeat one last time: if u want to make more money, take more risk.A plane ticket and a month in a youth hostel is not really that much money at "risk".You need to speak to a lot of people. Some will reject you but so what? One strategy is to clear a few first round phone interviews and schedule some second round in-person interviews in London before you fly over.Another strategy is to fly over to London, camp in cheap accommodations (youth hostel?) and interview like crazy.In either case, you need to be working with several head hunters to keep your pipeline full. Being in London also has the advantage that you can show up for networking events, evening talks, etc.Other things I can think of off the top of my head:1. contact alumni from your university - for informational interviews over lunch - one per day for a month should get you enough info about the business and some might even turn into interviews.2. cold call - email, phone, in person - recruiters and head hunters from various quant forums, linkedin.

I have never done phone interviews for a local candidate. At the first round the candidate interviews with one person - why make it hard for yourself and conduct the interview over the phone?In any case, even if they were on the phone, my point is that candidates based abroad are only going to be considered after all local candidates have been rejected.I would say though that tavisor is right to be cautious- I think one ought to plan to stay for 6 months.