tavisor -> I'm in a situation similar to yours, so this is not coming from someone with any experience really. But look at it this way. The advice you've been given DOES come from people with experience, so it pretty much doesn't matter what you think. Kinda like an undergrad telling you about what's important in string theory and its implications for the LHC --- irrelevant. I did the same mistake as you, but then changed that and merely say that I've presented my work on multiple occasions and list a few places where I've given talks, and that's it. Also, most likely the person reading your CV will have a PhD so they will have given talks themselves and hence perfectly understand what my remark means. Just my 2 cents...

@mynetself (This sounds like I am actually talking to myself LOL) Thanks! You just enlightened me. I will write about presenting my work in a short paragraph mentioning some names of places instead of the list.

speaking as a former hiring manager, I wouldn't even bother to read a "presentations' section. To me it carries zero worth, if it wasn't there I 'd assume that you'd given a few seminars and been to a few conferences. With it there, I wonder why you feel the need to tell me you've given some talks.

QuoteOriginally posted by: mjspeaking as a former hiring manager, I wouldn't even bother to read a "presentations' section. To me it carries zero worth, if it wasn't there I 'd assume that you'd given a few seminars and been to a few conferences. With it there, I wonder why you feel the need to tell me you've given some talks.@MJ Thanks for your insights first of all. So, in this line of work, don't you ever have to present your work for your colleagues or bosses, or management? Isn't it a plus if you can account for this ability as well? I also think that if you show that you are invited to give talks at well known places also strengthens your case as being a good researcher; and maybe gets your CV to be chosen from two similar ones.

This is not what junior quants are hired on. No one has any idea of what is prestigious outside their micro-field. Having given talks says zero about your ability to present -- I have been to plenty of dire seminars.

suffice to say that all the academic line items that convey achievement on academic CVs do not count in industry. They are just like shiny badges on a general's uniform that impresses nobody except those who are in the military. Do you think wall street is more likely to hire a quant from the military because he has more medals than another quant from the military? Nah, those medals don't count and neither does your academic medals. In fact, many of these line items are viewed negatively on wall street because they highlight the fact that (1) you have no industry experience; (2) you are a resume padder and self-promoter; (3) you are all about "me me me" instead of "teamwork".

QuoteOriginally posted by: tavisorSo, in this line of work, don't you ever have to present your work for your colleagues or bosses, or management? Isn't it a plus if you can account for this ability as well?We'll see how you can present at the interview. There's no way that we can see how well your presentation skills are from the resume, so no one tries.QuoteI also think that if you show that you are invited to give talks at well known places also strengthens your case as being a good researcher; and maybe gets your CV to be chosen from two similar ones.I think otherwise, and it's me that is reviewing resumes. :-)Getting invited to talks at well known places implies that can work the system and have academic political skills. Useful perhaps, and not what you get hired for. Also, people do not make hiring decisions based on resumes. The only purpose of the resume is to see who gets a phone screen, and if you have three resumes that are roughly the same, all of them will get phone calls. The resume gets you from a stack of 100 candidates down to about 10 or so.

I've changed my CV as suggested on this thread, I applied to the jobs which appeared on efinancialcareers.com, uploaded it to the webpages of big headhunting firms (I found a few on a thread here in the forum). Still, I did not get any feedback about my CV, jobs or interviews. Am I still doing something wrong? Is the market saturated and nobody is looking for entry level people? Nothing but 2-3 phone calls from people who just asked me if I am willing to relocate, and if I had some interviews already and then no follow up.

This is typical, the exact same thing happened to me. I got 0 interviews by posting my resume on websites. Actually, some headunters called me, asked about my background and sent every crappy IT job my way. However, in the end, I got pretty good job offers (through different channels, by contacting people directly). You need to seek out friends who already work in finance. You may have mentioned this already, but I am curious where you got Ph.D. ? The job market is somewhat better, but still pretty bad.

The problem is that until now I worked in academia, and I was pretty autistic about it so I don't really have contacts outside the theoretical particle physics world. I got my doctorate at U of Alabama and now I am a postdoc in Germany. I would prefer to stay in the EU/UK (my family is on this side of the Atlantic), but USA is also an option if that is the only place I could find a job.

QuoteOriginally posted by: tavisorI've changed my CV as suggested on this thread, I applied to the jobs which appeared on efinancialcareers.com, uploaded it to the webpages of big headhunting firms (I found a few on a thread here in the forum). Still, I did not get any feedback about my CV, jobs or interviews. Am I still doing something wrong? Is the market saturated and nobody is looking for entry level people? Nothing but 2-3 phone calls from people who just asked me if I am willing to relocate, and if I had some interviews already and then no follow up.One mistake that I find most newbies make is that they just don't send out enough resumes. People are used to the academic application process where you have to send out only about eight or not applications. I think that I had to send out about at least 100 resumes in order to land a job. When you look for a job, the probability that you will get one particular job is quite low, so you need to make up for it with numbers.

so do we get to see the new version of the cv?

QuoteOriginally posted by: katastrofaI disagree about the role of presentations and academic achievements in general on a junior cv. When I look at a cv of a junior candidate, I know they will have zero experience in finance, so I want to know if they did a good job in their previous field, because that, ceteris paribus, bodes well for their ability to do a good job for me. And despite what some claim here, having given talks at good conferences does say a lot about the quality of a researcher (even if these presentations were dull, as many good scientists have bad presentation skills). Ask any real scientist yes I agree but usually when you are a good researcher and when you have outstanding results (or even classic results in fact), you are not the one who will present that in the main famous conferences (especially if you are a PhD student, for a postdoc or an assistant researcher after negotiations it can be). Your boss the well famous director of the lab will do it for you... (my results were presented at the moment to 6 conferences, I presented in person only 1 time). So the question is shall I say that my results were presented in almost the best conferences on the world on my topic while I was not present to the talk ? A question that every PhD student has to face a day or another.

frencX -> Who presents your PhD work really depends a lot on what work are you involved with and what kind of person your supervisor is. If you work in a lab and your results are part of a bigger project which your supervisor is working on with other people, then it's fairly obvious he will get to talk about the project, which includes your work. For me, I've been working on some pretty self-contained topic, and so has my friend working with the same supervisor, and both of us have always talked about our own work by ourselves. Actually, my supervisor has never even mentioned our work in his talks.