Education

At a minimum a University Bachelor in Commerce/Economics and preferably some industry courses. All the large institutions recruit at the major Universities in September for positions beginning after graduation in June/Aug. There are usually two types of positions, Analyst & Associate. Analyst is for Undergrads and Associates for MBAs. 

To be considered you’ll need to have a strong GPA, expect to be asked to include a transcript.

Ability

You have to be able to show your interest and experience in the field. There are both very important and an interviewer can see right through you if you aren’t sincere. It is also important to research what EXACTLY you want to do & why. There are many different positions and desks and too many people seem unsure why they’re even applying for the position other than a “desire to be a trader”.

Personality

If you posses the education and ability, the next important thing is personality. Traders work in very close quarters. There are no cubicles or offices, just long desks. You have about 3-4 feet of space separating the staff. Employers want to make sure you’ll fit in with the corporate culture and that you will be able to handle the lifestyle. There are no real breaks, lunch is eaten at your desk. There are many cases of the top student with the perfect CV not getting a second round interview because they didn’t have the right personality ‘fit’.

Drive & Luck

If you don’t get an offer through campus recruitment (and very few do) all is not lost. If you have the ability, education & personality, then all you need is a lot of drive and a little luck. Get experience working in different financial jobs, make as many contacts as humanly possible and don’t be afraid to set up information interviews with firms where you’d like to work. In time, you should land some interviews and if you meet all the criteria, eventually get an offer.

So that’s it, now just spend your summer preparing for your application in September.

The firm’s investment banking division lost $17.3 billion in the first quarter. You can bet that the majority of job cuts will be from that division.

The 5,550 jobs represent about 7% of UBS’s 83,800 worldwide employees. That number is actually less than the rumored 10% cut that was floating around the market yesterday.  

This newest round of layoffs brings the total reductions in the industry to over 53,000 since this whole mess began. There is still no sign that the credit market has turned around, so expect more cuts to come during the next few months.

Translation from EconoSpeak™ to regular English: The US economy had fewer layoffs for jobs that don’t involve working on a farm, the government or a private house, for the month of April than those in the towers of Wall Street expected. The data represents 80% of the workforce involved in the economy.

This is different from the job numbers from yesterday, where a private firm announced its research on announced layoffs. Yesterday’s data was far less broad, and focused on only announced cuts and primarily in the financial sector.

What does this all mean?

Well, it’s good that the numbers beat expectations, although this is the longest string of consecutive declines since Feb-June 2003. So there are pluses and minuses. The data will definitely add fuel to the camp who believe that we are near the end of the downturn, and that recovery is on the way. (via U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Firing announcements rose to 90,015 last month, the most since September 2006, from 70,672 in April 2007, Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said in a statement today.” (Via Bloomberg)

There is no real surprise here. Financial firms are the hardest hit by the “Credit Crunch™” and have been announcing layoffs for the past few weeks. These jobs are very cyclical and workers are usually aware of the risk as the downside to the high salary.

If we begin seeing big increases in layoffs in core industies like manufacturing and retail, then there will be cause for alarm.

Taking a look at this morning’s headlines:

US home foreclosures  are up 57%

Oil  is at a record high of $112.

Corn & Rice futures are at record levels trading in Chicago.

Now I don’t want to sound like Mr. Negative and scare you, but things aren’t exactly looking too good for the US Economy. The US Dollar stinks, interest rates are low (this is good for people with loans, but foreign investors like high interest rates), and commodity prices are rising.

The most important thing that people should now be paying attention to are JOBS.

As long as Americans are employed, they will be able to deal with these rising prices. Sacrafices will be made, Johnny might buy a Civic instead of a Hummer, Sue will abandon her trip to Europe and go see the Grand Canyon instead. People will struggle, but survive without much effort.

If jobs disappear, prepare for something that hasn’t been seen in a generation. People’s lives will change, materially. Well known business names will go bankrupt, people will stop spending, things will be bleak. Normally, this is where a government would step in with social programs and spending to boost the economy and try to help make lives better. The question will be, with current spending and taxation, where would that money come from? And at what cost to future generations?