Ignoring Location

Intro

Hello and welcome to the first edition of our weekly newsletter. In these notes, I will primarily be providing opinion pieces surrounding current market trends that I believe may have an impact on the Class of 2021. Moreover, I will be reflecting on trends I am seeing among the most successful peers I have in my life.

When it comes to finding a job...

I believe one of the most important factors in landing a job is ignoring location. Following graduation, one must be able to have the drive to re-locate to virtually anywhere if the opportunity proves to jumpstart their career (barring any unique situation that would require you to work in a specific location). This has become even more important today, where we see new layoffs in the news almost daily.

With layoffs, I would imagine that there will be far less companies willing to take risks on recent graduates. As a result, there will be less positions to fill and a much larger pool of applicants than in previous years. Nonetheless, there are ways you can be proactive:

Learning new skills:

This is extremely important. For someone graduating with a Finance degree in May of 2021, I would highly recommend pursuing the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. I can speak first-hand on the credibility this rigorous journey provides for your resume. Is it easy? No.

In addition, I would advise business majors to familiarize themselves with common recommended skills that are appearing more and more on job applications. Some that come to mind include:

Python
SQL
VBA
Power Query

Having the ability to automate tasks is paramount. The skills listed above have the ability to take your candidacy for an entry-level position to new heights. I saw a tweet recently from @jackbutcher that I tended to agree with:

The uncomfortable truth:

You can get into the top 10% of a huge number of income producing skills by watching YouTube videos and practicing.

Whether it is memorizing Excel shortcuts, taking an introductory course on Python, or simply familiarizing yourself with business acumen, there really isn't an excuse for not trying to constantly get better as long as you have an internet connection.

Read

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time — none, zero.” - Charlie Munger

Books I have read over quarantine that I would highly recommend:

Extreme Ownership (this is a must)
Outliers
Flashboys (If you're into high frequency trading / modern exchange dynamics)
Thinking, Fast & Slow

Network

It is crucial that you pick the right friends in college. Higher education is flooded with every distraction you could think of. Having the ability to drown out the noise (easier said than done), zero in on who is going places, and befriend them will pay more dividends than you could ever imagine.

I also want to emphasize that this is not unique to your specific degree.

Understand that it is important to be acquainted with other individuals with different interests. We will all need a doctor, dentist, real estate agent, etc. as we move on through life.

And most importantly, the world is a beautiful place because of how different everyone is. Embrace this as you move through campus and be open to all sorts of opinions. Join clubs that you would not have previously seen yourself becoming a member of. Solely clinging to others who confirm what you are interested in will only deter you from opportunities later on.

Ignoring Location

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