For more on Options’ 2015 graduate scheme click here.
Three out of every four hires I make are graduates. My personal philosophy is that there are a lot of roles in any firm where a smart graduate with the right attitude will outshine an industry veteran hire within 6 to 18 months (and at a fraction of the cost). Moreover, graduates can be much more versatile; you can’t always ask a senior person to ‘pop’ over to Hong Kong for three months, whereas the right grad will rip your arm off for the opportunity (this is how I got to NYC in the first place with First Derivatives).
At Wombat, the team building strategy was developed around junior hires (‘stem cells’ as we called them at the time). The average age in Wombat was 26.5 years when the NYSE acquisition closed. In contrast, rumor had it that the youngest person in the US NYSE organisation (excluding ARCA) was 30!
At Options, we currently run a 3:1 hiring ratio, which means we make three junior hires for every senior one. This profile is vastly different from our competitors, where everyone seems to have 15 years industry experience (if their LinkedIn profiles are anything to go by). We firmly believe that youth, enthusiasm and versatility will win the day, and that disruptive companies are supposed to be young and fresh.
The below advice applies to anyone with their heart set on that dream first job, be it in financial technology or otherwise.
Tip One: Cc the hiring manager when you submit your resume and cover letter
I appreciate this is not for the faint hearted, but my feedback is that when it comes to technology roles (or even sales and account management roles), HR departments tend to filter out many of the best candidates before they are presented to senior management. Typically, whomever holds ultimate responsibility for team building, be it the CEO, COO or CTO, will have a very different view of what makes the right candidate and that is often lost in translation (even more so for graduate hires where “attitude” is often the determining factor).
At Options, both the CTO and myself sit on the careers alias and read every incoming resume and cover letter. This is true of many IP based businesses where a firm’s most fundamental competitive edge is their ability to hire and retain top talent.
Tip Two: Flattery will get you everywhere
It would never occur to most graduates, but a cover letter that incorporates a bit of flattery will generally get you an interview; to paraphrase, an intro along the lines of, “Danny, I’ve done a lot of research in the fin tech sector in Belfast, the Wombat story is amazing and I’d love the opportunity to start my career at Options, it looks like a great up and coming firm”, will go a long way.
Senior executives tend to be (very) busy, and while most will take the time to read your letter, they don’t want to have to endure a 1500 word essay on how great you are. A paragraph that tells them why they’re great and why you want to work with them will usually do the trick and will more than likely get you an interview.
Tip Three: During your interview you should outline at least one example of where you went to extreme lengths to deliver for customers
With software developers the ‘all-nighter’ was always the gold standard answer. This is typically a story where the graduate pulled a 36-hour shift at some stage during the internship, working with the team through the night to meet a key delivery deadline. This sends all the right messages; your customer focused, committed to the cause and a great team player.
The best story I ever heard was from a young lady who’d worked as an intern in a customer-facing role with another fintech company in Belfast. Despite many, many requests, her manager wouldn’t fund a trip to New York to meet the customers she’d worked with every day for the previous year. As a result, she took a two-week holiday and flew over to meet them on her own dime. How’s that for commitment to the customer!?
Tip Four: Be patient and practice gentle persistence
If you are applying to a SME, in many cases you won’t get an offer straight away, even if the firm intends to hire you. This can happen for all sorts of reasons, not least because many managers will wait to see if you follow up before making an offer (the “gumption” test). Bear in mind that the manager who wants to hire you might be testing your interest, on holiday, off sick, travelling, need board approval, be seen to complete a selection process, or just be extremely busy, so it doesn’t necessarily mean anything if an offer doesn’t follow (so long as there is no clear rejection).
Smart (and patient) graduates can build a lot of credibility in this phase through gentle persistence. In practical terms, drop you HR contact a note every week or so to see how things are going, being careful not to pester or hassle.
Ability to manage frustrations, patience and persistence are some of the most fundamental traits in top sales people, delivery managers, and engineers; and are absolutely essential for technical account managers. If you shine on these fronts while waiting for that offer letter, people will notice and you’ll be setting yourself up for your first promotion before you’ve even started in the job.
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People regularly blow themselves up in the hiring process by messing up in one or all of the key areas above. Take the last 12 months in Options for example:
Thanks,
Danny