394 Frequently Asked Questions In Quantitative Finance
or no skills in finance. Often they resort to looking for
keywords. Thus you should not rely upon them working
out that if you have done subject X, you must have skills
Y and Z. If you believe those skills are critical for this
job, then make sure this can easily be spotted. Read the
specification carefully, and if they specifically ask for a
skill or experience, then include whatever you can to
illustrate your strengths. If you believe particular skills
to be critical mention them in your covering letter as
well (or if you believe the headhunter is especially dim).
Make sure you can be contacted Make sure your contact
details are reliable and that you regularly monitor the
relevant email account(s) and telephones. It is sad when
someone’s CV shows great promise, but they don’t
respond in time to be interviewed. If you are at uni-
versity, be aware that your current email address may
stop working soon after you complete your course.
GMail is to be preferred over Yahoo for personal email
address.
Getitchecked Have your CV and covering letter proof
read by a native English speaker. This is important
because people really do judge your ability by how
you express yourself. Quant Finance is an international
sport, with speakers of every language, and the ability
to communicate difficult ideas is important, and if you
can’t get the name of your university correct, it makes
one wonder if you can explain your views on jump dif-
fusion. Also CVs use a particular style of English, which
is subtly different from the one you learned in school.
As there are a lot more applicants than jobs, the early
stages are optimized to filter out those who stand no
chance of getting in. Thus you must take consider-
able care to make sure you don’t fail at an early stage
because of trivial errors.
