Finance Jobs -- Career Research for MBAs  Tags: business careers finance  

Online business networks like LinkedIn help you connect, get advice on a global scale, research background information, and join industry groups/associations.

For example, if you are a grad student who one day wants to be a CMO of a company, you may want to look at current CMO profiles to get an idea of what you may need to do before you achieve your goal.

Social networking is a great tool to brand yourself, help you make money, reference check employers and so much more.

For more informatio on social networking and other Web 2.0 tools you can use in your career search, please go to our Web 2.0 in Business online guide.

Congratulations! 

Your fabulous resume has landed you a coveted interview.  Now you're asking yourself how to stand out and get noticed face-to-face.  A little extra research will go a long way toward being prepared to answer interview questions and to formulating intelligent questions for those interviewing you.

• Talk to the Career Advisors in the CMC and second years. Find out what recruiters are looking for, what mistakes to avoid, and what to expect in an interview.
• Know that your company wants you to know about them - review the company's most recent glossy annual report, press releases, and SEC filings like 10Ks and 10Qs, as well as recent news stories.  All of this can be done through Factiva, Capital IQ and/or the company's own Web site.
• Train yourself to easily identify what your employer is looking for by reviewing "Behavioral Interview Questions."
• Check out CareerBeam's Industry Profiles for Call Preparation questions about key industry opportunities, threats, and current market situations. 
• Brush up on what analysts are saying. Visit Thomson One Banker and click on Research under Company Analysis.

Your professional relationships are key to your professional success.

However, don't put all your job-hunting eggs in the professional basket. Aside from your family and friends, your network already includes classmates, alumni networks, social networking contacts and so on. Think about different people in your network that you can tap into.

Job-hunting on the Net should be only a small part of your job search, as should chasing want ads. Spend the bulk of your time identifying employer prospects and designing a networking plan to help you land a job in one of the companies. Network with former coworkers and other professionals in your field. Keith Ferrazzi, the author of the "Never Eat Lunch Alone" career guide, quoted a study from Mark Granovetter that highlighted the “strength of weak ties.” -- When it comes to finding out about new jobs, information, or ideas, weak ties are generally more important than your strong ties.  This is because many of your closest friends and contacts go to the same parties, generally do the same work, and exist in roughly the same world as you do.  Strong ties often know the information that you already know. Weak ties, however, occupy a different world from you.

John Lee Shares Advice for Students Who Will Be Interviewing With Investment Banks

John Lee joined Merrill Lynch in 1996 and is currently a Managing Director in the Asia Origination Group, primarily responsible for origination for companies based in Hong Kong and southern China.

Clip courtesy of eClips.

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For international students looking for a job in the US or US students looking to work abroad, take a look at the following resources for cultural information:

Culture Shock! series of books has customs and etiquette for a number of countries.

Going Global career guides cover 23 countries and are available electronically via ProQuest.

The International MBA Student's Guide to the US Job Search has useful tips for international students interviewing in the US.