Neil is a financial mathematician, who found the job application process difficult and infuriating. However through perseverance, he found an excellent position. He has spoken to ExcelScient about the ups and downs of the recruitment process and even shared some insiders tips.

After finishing a PhD in the USA, Neil decided to take up a postdoctoral position at the University of Edinburgh funded by an EU grant, which led to a successful application for a 3-year EPSRC research grant. As the end of his funding was approaching, Neil decided to move to the private sector, having become disenchanted with the academic environment.

Assuming nothing, and taking nothing for granted, Neil started looking for interesting positions in industry. Specifically, he was interested in jobs related to the application of mathematics to industrial problems. To aid his employment, at the end of his fellowship he took it on himself to become an expert in some areas of financial maths, and developed some programming skills at the same time. However, Neil’s hard efforts were to seem fruitless; little did he know that his endeavours would be undervalued by
most recruiters and employers, who focussed solely on practical work experience.Neil  was frustrated by the phrase, “You have no commercial experience”, hearing it repeated again and again by professional recruiters.

Neil’s frustration was intensified: “There was no point in trying to explain the skills I had to people whose mind was already made up and saw me only as a commodity. Some even thought it was a good idea to take cheap shots, by quizzing me at the phone, throwing about technical words that they had no understanding of.”

It would seem that most recruiters failed to understand Neil’s academic qualifications and skills. He was asked if being a mathematician made him a software developer, or perhaps even a statistician. Certainly, the recruiters would never promote him for a job in financial services, even with knowledge of financial maths, since it was perceived as not
commercially relevant!Neil  searched for many months, being personally knocked back by HR departments and agents alike. After a year out of work, things could surely not get any worse.

And then a miracle happened! A personal acquaintance, working at a major financial institution, informed Neil that his employer was hiring and asked if he’d be happy to have his CV looked at. Within no time, he was called for an interview and a week later was offered a job. At the same time, two others were hired for similar roles. Out of the three new employees, two had no commercial experience, but crucially, they all had knowledge around the field. Sadly, in the words of his own manager, Neil would not have been even interviewed, “had [his] CV gone to a recruiter, or through HR, as it would have never reached my desk”.

So, through Neil’s experience, it would seem that the old idiom still stands: it’s who you know, not what you know. Typically, in the recruitment world, the first major hurdle is to get your CV seen by the relevant people – usually recruiting managers and not HR representatives. If you are in the same situation, ExcelScient recommends that you capitalise on personal networks. Use LinkedIn and Facebook (as well as others) to remind old bosses and friends that you are looking for opportunities.  Finding out who might have positions available (people within companies, not just the company itself) is vital and then target a cover letter and CV accordingly!