So...I believe I have some skills and some background in finance...but while recently looking for a job, I sent a resume to like 40 potentials employers and I got 2 replies - asking me to pay them $5000+ in order to get a job? On top of that i offered all these "firms" to work totally free in the beginning for they can test me and then their answer is like: "yeah...you can work for free...but why not pay me some cash - you have money right...with all these terms that you use" - these are the replies i am getting so far, losely translated. Also...I am looking for a super low pay rate of like $15 hourly...I mean come on - even the slaves in the roman empire weren't asked to pay for their work. Also, here are some of my skills (copy/pasted from a cover letter i've written): + I have developed about 30 programs/scripts in C#, Mathematica, PHP and C++ to model different risk and management problems, including but not limited to: Derivatives pricing (options, bonds, swaps, futures, accruals, CMS, CDO, forwards, repos, MBS, CFDs, ASX listed CFDs, CDS, warrants, turbos, FX â others), risk management (kelly criterion, hedging, diversification, var), econometrics (sharpe ratio, sortino ratio, treynor ratio, beta, omega, kurtosis, skewness, variance, standard deviation, moments, CAPM), trading (quantitative analysis, fundamental analysis, pure arbitrage, statistical arbitrage, neural networks, mispricings, high frequency trading, emerging markets). + I have devloped about 20 mathematical models, including - an extended version of Black-Scholes using the levy distribution instead of the normal one - which gives much better option pricing results and prediction, extending the kelly criterion from a one dimensional model to a multidimensional which is of great use in the investing field, my own probability distribution designed for continous timing, my own PDEs. + I have an MBA from the university of Liverpool in international business + a few awards in mathematics and programming and finally -have worked a few months at the well known Swiss Bank: Julius Bar as well and in a top Hong Kong hedge fund. it's just weird..and I think it will get worse... anyway - 10x!
The current job market is a joke. Don't despair about those creeps that are trying to make money off of you. They'll stop at nothing to make a buck off of anyone in need. Just keep plugging away with the job hunt. With someone of your experience and education, your ship will come in one of these days. In the meantime, enjoy your free time!
You must be referring to recruiters asking for 5k right? If so that's not uncommon. My friend told me employers are asking for W-2 or 1099 to verify salary history. He told him fine and I want to see my potential managers so he can prove he is successful too. I can see background check but asking people for W-2's WTF? That's none of their business. And I thought the Patriot Act was bad.
Basically there is a glut of applicants with the same background in finance, business type degrees. But even ten twenty years ago you could send out 50 odd resumes and you wouldn't just sail into a job. It took my ages to the hang of the interview bullshitting format. Certainly you shouldn't pay them to work, but I wouldn't dismiss a couple of months working for nothing. If they think you'll be an asset to the company long term they won't let you leave. And you'll have some work related experience whatever they say, so finding the next job will be easier. They might not pay you in monetary terms, but the worst that can happen is that you'll learn something, even if what you learn is that you don't like being someone elses gimp.
I've heard that as well. Employers asking for W-2's or 1099's makes me see red. Job seekers really need to ask themselves if they would want to work for a company that ask's for those things. Seems like it would be a concentration camp style of employer. Guess it all depends how desperate someone is. Hopefully a few HR Reps will get shot and this gestapo type practice will stop.
Your education and skills look impressive, but you might want to consider hiring a copy editor to correct your mistakes in spelling and punctuation. That sort of thing might not seem important to you, but it could be important to those who do the hiring.
That has been in place for 10 plus years, but speaking with friends applying for work this W-2 thing is more recent and invasive IMO. But I see your point. With a W-2 you can guesstimate if someone is married and that's illegal to ask.