31 year old without experience

I would agree with the “Naysayers” above. you can listen to Destroyer above who has that “pursue your dreams” ”rah rah rah” mentality, but if we’re talking about realistic chances, they are very slim. You always have to look at your key competition for these types of jobs.
tons of young, eager, folks with no-tie downs, who (in the eyes of any employer) are far more likely and willing to grind and grunt it out for any start of a long career vs a guy in his mid-30’s who has done biology and retail, and will likely have family commitments.
 
Still 31 is not old. It may well be for some of the ‘hard nut’ IB jobs in corporate finance. But AM is a different ball park to this. Your not expected to slog it out for a few years like you are in the former.
Still agree with some of the other posters though that it will not be easy
 
Thank you all for your replies. I have mortgage debt as someone assumes I had no debt. Someone also asked about my investment strategies. I invest mostly in individual stocks (mainly retail, some pharmaceutical, oil, property and foreign shares), 10% in bonds, 5% speculation/experiments. I got interested in investing after reading ‘One up on Wall Street’ by Peter Lynch and since read all the books written by him and John Rothschild.
I use the bottom up approach, and since I work in retail I get a lot of information that have proved valuable to me ( more than models on excel ) before they hit the market or financial news. I am also interested in behavioural finance and how it affects the markets but of course my portfolio is not big enough to claim an experiment works or doesn’t. This is why I use ‘luck’ rather than ‘skill’. Buffet is skilful but his results have been achieved by individual investors be it at a small scale, either by chance, skill or luck. I always discuss my ‘strategies’ with anyone that is interested but of course it is not structured while some are just based on experience, information and common sense.
For those saying I should go on with Retail/ Sales/Biology, it is not intellectually stimulating for me , I am also an introvert ( not the type that hides from people , I just like my own time :P) but I would have to stay in retail if this doesn’t work out .We live in a modern world where we can apply for jobs online so I never have to quit to look for another. I prefer politics, psychology, economics, philosophy, poetry, statistic etc. ( and yes I know I should have studied one of those at University but I can’t change the past) I read writers like Taleb, Robert Shiller, Daniel Kahneman, Niall Ferguson and those types of authors and would happily go through annual reports of companies I am not willing to invest in.
Based on the replies, I have decided to take the exams starting this December and apply for jobs at small AM firms across the U.K as advised. I think the course will put a more disciplined approach on theoretical knowledge and make me more pratical . Even if I do not get a job out of it I can improve on how I invest and that is good enough for me. Knowledge is nothing if not applied and investing luckily is a world open to virtually anyone that is lucky enough to earn more than they spend.
I am still unsure how to write about my personal investment in a cover letter or CV but hopefully I would be able to demonstrate if I get an interview and if not, life goes on. We still have our ISAs :P
Again, thank you all for your comments, it has been very helpful. Good luck to you all, whatever you do.
 
TheLakeHouse wrote:
Oh, I got it. Did you mean he should find a junior role in biology instead of trying to break in finance?
And I agree with you on the above comment! My guy works in biotechnology and he has no difficulty in finding a decent job
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The finance industry has been contracting for half a decade now. It will be decades before it reaches 20% of GDP again.
 
hpracing007 wrote:
former trader wrote:
TheLakeHouse wrote:
former trader wrote:
To be frank, you’re better off staying in biology.
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He said “I have a degree in Biology but have no experience related to it nor in finance”.
OP, I am curious which industry are you in now?
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Unless you are in the top 5% in finance, a career in biology will be more rewarding intellectually and financially.
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I dunno about that… I know quite a few biology majors (got a minor in biology myself) and they are having a really tough time finding jobs. You gotta go up to masters/phd level to get anywhere in the field.
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I bet you know more finance grads trying to break in FO.
 
^ Actually I don’t haha, I don’t personally know many finance people (my own fault, I should be networking more)
But the ones I do know, are all trying to break into FO like you said. But at least they are employed. The biology majors I know are really roughing it. I know people out in california making less than $20/hr, closer to $15/hr. The most successful, $$$$, biology major (that did not go to graduate school or med school) that I know was my manager at Home Depot when I worked there a summer during college.
 
I think they have family support and/or live with roommates.. I went to craigslist just now, saw 2 jobs, when i searched for “biology hr” and “biology hour”, one paid $17/hr, other $14-20/hr based on experience.
 
If you are so curious then you should go for a change to the finance career . Your will power has to be stong enough to change career at this stage . The levels you should not start counting for now . Just keep doing..
 
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