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Marketing Your Financial Services Expertise
With the economy in turmoil, many financial professionals feel there is little opportunity to land a new job in this market. But the reality is that where there is turmoil, there is opportunity…it is just a different kind of opportunity.
Financial professionals who were let go from struggling companies can reposition themselves to prove to employers how their past successes can help solve today’s financial and business issues.
Change Focus to Business Solutions
By focusing less on your professional identity and previous job title and more on business solutions that make money, save money, and save time, financial professionals can retool their search and open up new doors.
In this economy, financial professionals will be tapped for business turnaround, exit strategy, and debt remediation initiatives.
Their expertise in auditing, analysis, loan underwriting, tax, and compliance will continue to be in demand as we work towards economic recovery. Candidates with success uncovering errors, negotiating/renegotiating contracts, streamlining labor intensive processes, and eliminating operational redundancies will prove valuable to future employers.
But in order for employers to quickly understand the value of your skills and competencies in this new economy, many financial professionals will need to ditch their previous resumes that may focus too heavily on industry or job specific tasks and instead revamp their documents to “scream” problem solver.
Examples:
Here are a few examples of key deliverables that different finance professionals can focus on to articulate their value proposition.
For a Controller…
- Cut excess wage payments by 20% and trimmed non-critical expenses on average 5% across the board for 10 operations; improved budgeting/forecasting capabilities exponentially by restructuring financial statement line items to provide more detail, clarity, visibility, and consistency in revenue and expense line items.
- Unlocked $300K in savings and increased manager accountability by imbedding hourly productivity metric into weekly management reporting and budgeting.
- Trimmed operations costs and increased productivity and bottom line revenue by 100+% by creating accountability standards to address financial errors, reprioritizing tasks to minimize overtime expenses, and negotiating discounted vendor pricing.
For an Underwriter…
- Brought division back to profitability by re-underwriting division and uncovering $1.5M in underwriting errors.
- Improved due diligence procedures exponentially by auditing existing processes of outside vendors, creating more robust and detailed due diligence scripting, adding new steps to the existing process, and revising current audit policies and procedures manual.
- At no additional cost to the firm, trimmed hundreds of hours off time spent annually auditing and evaluating trades by customizing an “off-the shelf” application to include enhanced automated features, more streamlined reporting, and improved data capture capabilities.
- Selected to audit and evaluate firm’s most challenging compromised and “at-risk” loans and prepared synopses and recommendations on repurchasing options for senior management.
For a Structured Finance Professional…
- Successfully structured high risk transactions including a $400M first mortgage for Company ABC and a $250M mezzanine debt construction deal, the largest of its kind at the time, for Company XYZ.
- Negotiated the sale of participating interests in loans and managed securitization process for $190M of $335M sale-leaseback mortgage loan on three large single-tenant office assets.
- Spearheaded the development and implementation of an asset management review system and software program that improved data integrity exponentially while substantially enhancing reporting capabilities.
For a Chief Financial Officer…
- Cut monthly closing time from 3 weeks to 3 days and virtually eliminated all errors in monthly postings by building software applications to automate 90% of the monthly closing process.
- Trimmed hundreds of hours off time spent processing daily trades and increased accuracy exponentially by reviewing and restructuring back office operation, replacing manual procedures with electronic interfaces, and cross training entire staff.
- Reduced time spent on rebalancing tasks from 5 days to a few minutes by building automated quantitative data engines to run quant products acquired in a merger, dramatically reducing overhead.
For a Securities Analyst…
- Initiated in-depth fundamental and technical analysis techniques and created new and innovative desktop systems that facilitate comprehensive, yet rapid scrutiny of both long-term and intra-day price movements.
- Optimized firm revenues on convertible bonds by designing a data-linked spreadsheet to calculate and project dividend adjustment timing and thresholds.
For a Treasurer…
- Cut interest expenses by 50% and doubled average bond maturity in two years by calling and refinancing all long-term public debt with lower cost and longer maturity bond issues, convertible debenture offerings and a 50-year subordinated note placement totaling over $2B.
- Slashed after-tax costs by 40% and reduced dept-to-capital ratio by simultaneously arranging $110M A/R securitization programs in U.S., UK and Japan.
- Negotiated and closed over 30 bank credit agreements by employing an aggressive strategy of personally preparing all term sheets and requiring borrower’s counsel draft all credit documentation.
For a Retail Bank Manager…
- Top producer in region for referrals with twice as many referrals as branch in #2 spot.
- Ranked #1 in investment and multiple service household growth out of 25 branches.
- One of top three producers for check card usage with increase from 59% to 67% over 18 months.
- Designed and launched company’s first automated branch sales tracking system that was implemented nationally in 330 branches. Standardized methods for tracking sales, referrals, and account activity, rewarded successful sales, and identified growth opportunities.
- Boosted customer service scores by 15 points and maintained service ratings of 95% or higher over six quarters.
Bottom Line
Today’s economy calls for unconventional thinkers who can do more with less and show agility under changing and stressful circumstances. By crafting a more strategic and skills/achievement focused resume, you can take the first step towards proving these important competencies to employers.
© Copyright Barbara Safani, 2009. Used with permission.
---------------------------------------------About This Author:
Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers, has over twelve years of experience in career management, recruiting, executive coaching, and organizational development. Ms. Safani partners with both Fortune 100 companies and individuals to deliver targeted programs focusing on résumé development, job search strategies, networking, interviewing, salary negotiation skills, and online identity. Barbara is also the author of Happy About My Resume: 50 Tips for Building a Better Document to Secure a Brighter Future.