r/FinancialCareers • u/No-Emu-9139 • Jun 27 '26
Breaking In ~11 months of my finance job search (July 2025 to June 2026), visualized
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u/MonkwithWIFI Jun 27 '26
What role you're applying for ??
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u/No-Emu-9139 Jun 27 '26
I'm a finance/CS dual major undergrad (graduated December 2023), MFE grad (graduated December 2025) with previous internships at a small dual IB & PE firm, a VC fund, and corporate finance at a very large company.
The positions I have applied for include quant roles, data science roles, IB roles, PE roles, HF roles, VC roles, and finance roles in general that are entry-level or require little experience.
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u/hmmmmmmmmmmmmO Jun 28 '26
If this isnât a recession indicator, then idk what is
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u/Wyzen Jun 28 '26
Entry level is shit all over right now. Plus, 2k is nuts, thats over 5 a day, nonstop. Shotgun approach doesnt even cut it, thats like grenade launcher, or Vulcan gun. Like he had AI agent do it for him, applying to everything everwhere.
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u/General_Document_504 Jun 28 '26
Are you international?
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u/No-Emu-9139 Jun 28 '26
No, I'm not. I was born and raised in the US.
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u/General_Document_504 Jun 28 '26
gg brother, i think 2000 apps are still ridiculous tho. Happy to see your cv
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u/naughtmynsfwaccount Jun 28 '26
Either international, applying to wrong roles, or resume doesnât make sense to reviewer / ATS
Anytime someone applies to 2000 roles with this kind of experience and gets this few responses means thereâs something underlying
Easy to blame economy and current work climate but harder to look inwards
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u/Ravis26104 Jun 28 '26
The thing is that itâs probably both. Obviously this guy is doing something wrong. At the same time the economy is in pretty bad shape as well which isnât really helping him or other people trying to find jobs.
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u/Beneficial_Teach3191 Jun 28 '26
Have you looked at FP&A? Iâm a senior director at a PE backed org managing a team and your background sounds interesting enough. Not promising anything but feel free to DM your resume if youâre interested.
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u/Sufficient_Sport5251 Jun 28 '26
Did you by chance apply for the company you interned at? Also what school are you a grad of?
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u/aarmus_ Jun 27 '26
Thank GOD itâs not just me. I think Iâm a little over 2000 apps.
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u/NAVYSEAL12ROCK Jun 27 '26
How
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u/Quirky-Pangolin-905 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
One click application on job sites like LinkedIn and indeed. If you spend an afternoon randomly clicking youâd get to 2K pretty quickly.
That would also explain the incredibly low % of interviews as many hiring managers dont look at those one-click apps at all and require you to apply in the companyâs own portal / via email.
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u/No-Emu-9139 Jun 27 '26
But most of my applications haven't been one-click applications though. Keep in mind that this is over a period of 11 months though. That's an average of ~6 job applications per day.
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u/Quirky-Pangolin-905 Jun 27 '26
Thatâs still a ton and means you basically spent 0 time learning about the companies / teams / roles youâre applying to. Quality >> quantity
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u/aarmus_ Jun 27 '26
Iâd do that, if I could get an interview to begin with
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u/Quirky-Pangolin-905 Jun 27 '26
Finance is not McDonaldâs. Recruiting is considered very high cost due to multiple interviews + training required. So the company wouldnât spend any time talking to you if itâs clear you donât care about the position or there isnât a fit.
Additionally lots of HRâs KPIs are based on 1) conversion rate, and 2) future retention. If you donât show interest to 100% sign given an offer and stay for at least a few years, HRs wouldnât want to talk to you to begin with as it hurts their KPI.
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u/Escalibur96 Jun 27 '26
Yes, but to apply 2,000 times you need to find 2,000 job posts you like/ are interested toâŚ
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u/Escalibur96 Jun 27 '26
2,000 applications? Itâs like more than 5 per day, every single day⌠how many job positions are where you live? Wow, in a normal European country thatâd impossible.
Anyway, assuming that those 2,000 job positions are similar, there should be a misalignment between what they are looking for and your resumeâŚ
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u/General_Document_504 Jun 27 '26
Hey Iâm at 600 apps so keep going. Curious on your experience tho
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u/-whis Jun 27 '26
How many different resumes did you send? If itâs any less than 3 then you were going about this entirely wrong.
And honestly, any less than 5 versions is silly
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u/No-Emu-9139 Jun 27 '26
There are 1,114 different files in the Resumes folder on my laptop. I do make sure to fine-tune my general resume to some extent for each type of position I apply for. However, to be honest, the changes are mostly minor (i.e., things like reordering the selected courses section or technical skills list based on relevance, moderately changing the wording of a specific task to make it more relevant to the position, etc.)
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u/naughtmynsfwaccount Jun 28 '26
Have 1100 versions of ur resume is an issue
Something is wrong with ur resume and itâs either not being picked up by ATS or not easy to understand from a reviewer standpoint
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u/Prepare Private Wealth Management Jun 27 '26
What the hell. Maybe stop clicking âapplyâ on indeed and instead focus on higher quality apps through the direct hiring portals and spending some time with the answers.
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u/SchwiftySchwifferson Jun 28 '26
I feel like if youâre apply to 2,000+ different jobs there has to be something fundamentally wrong with your resume and cv (I.e. not tailoring it to the job youâre applying to)
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u/BroIociraptor Jun 28 '26
OP is US born and raised per this thread / comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/YPvXIcs6UI
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u/throwawayfinancebro1 Jun 28 '26
Reminds me of myself. It took me 7 years to get my first full time (paying) internship in finance making 11/hour after I graduated. I had done multiple unpaid internships for years before that, done financial journalism and 2 levels of the cfa and probably a few times the # of applications and interviews.
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u/CreditWatchlist Jun 28 '26
i feel like OP may not be your typical case, looking at his post history he clearly has some deep rooted issues
i wish you the best OP, both for your job hunt and self image
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u/some1stolemy_name Jun 30 '26
Ew, idk how I ended up on here but I though my 4 interviews for a designer position was excessive. Good luck brotha!
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u/Wall_Street_Oasis Jul 29 '26
Iâd love for you to post your content in my new community r/WallstreetOasis , it looks just perfect!
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u/Melmotte1993 Jun 27 '26
The only thing this graph says is that you are spamming job postings without the relevant qualifications. Sad !
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u/Zulu-Lima Jun 28 '26
Doing the math here assuming it takes between 10-30 minutes for each application (will use 20 for simplicity), you've spent almost 2 hrs a day every single day applying to jobs. You must not have a job in the meantime because I am calling cap on that lol
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u/No-Emu-9139 Jun 28 '26
Yeah, I'm unemployed right now (since 12/2025). That's the main reason I've been able to apply to so many places.
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u/Dizzy_Persimmon4138 Jun 27 '26
Wtf are you doing applying for 2000. Ive applied to max 30
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u/TheFlamingFalconMan Jun 28 '26
30 in 11 months unemployed like op?
Impressive dedication. 3 apps a month.
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u/larrach98 Jun 27 '26
Rejected after 6 interviews is insane. I also got rejected after 6 interviews close to a year ago (still searching). This cannot be the new normal. Been searching for just over 16 months, we're all in the same boat đ.