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Old 08-20-2012, 11:54 AM
 
837 posts, read 2,081,689 times
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I've spent 5+ years working within Sales in the Employer Health Insurance industry (a form of Financial Services, but not the Hedge Fund type that dominates the lower Fairfield County area).

I am also getting my M.B.A. (expected by Spring 2014), just in time for Healthcare Reform changes which does threaten my current job and career. This has made me entertain fallback plans.

My question is - what is the job landscape like in both Fairfield County and the rest of Connecticut (outside of the Hedge Fund companies and the likes of UBS/RBS)? What would you do if you were in my shoes? Since I'm still young, I still have the time to steer my career in a different direction.

Here are some more scattering thoughts:
  • I have great people skills and my job now is within Sales (but more of an Account Management role).
  • Although the monetary risk/reward is crazy, I've always thought about a true entreprenurial gig within Sales. I have very good people skills (but not the snazzy/slick/potentially sleazy skills -- which some clients are actually turned off by). Some clients do appreciate my detail-oriented & intelligent approach to handling business.
  • Most of my career has always involved Customer Service and Account Management, and I've excelled in it. Thus, I've thought about pursuing a career in Project Management since similar principles are involved (meeting deadlines, being organized, achieving the task at hand, etc.)
  • My M.B.A. has a concentration in Human Resources Management, so I've thought about pursuing a career in H.R. The only drawback is that I would take a hit in salary, since many non-director postings in Human Resource are not lucrative.
  • My old job (first one out of college) gave me Teleworking capabilities which was AWESOME. I don't have that now, and it has really dragged down my Work/Life balance.
  • Being really good with computers and technology, I've thought about getting professional certification in the IT field. I'm no programmer but I think I'd be good at Sales or Project Management in IT. A few friends are trying to urge me to get certified in A+ and MCSE since they are "easy starter certifications."
  • I've thought about doing the NYC commute (1.5 hour train ride each way from Bridgeport/Stratford/Milford) but only if the job doesn't require physically being in the office all 5 days.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Smykowski from Office Space
"I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?"
I've observed that many posts here come from very knowledgable individuals who enjoy topics on sociology, socio-economics, and the job market in general, so all opinions are welcome.
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Old 08-20-2012, 11:57 AM
 
837 posts, read 2,081,689 times
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By the way, my M.B.A. opens up doors for Financial Analyst positions. Unfortunately, it's not an area that I'm too interested, but that could also be because of limited knowledge; I'm not 100% sure what those Financial Analysts actually do on a day-to-day basis.

Again, all thoughts are welcome.
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Old 08-20-2012, 03:01 PM
 
Location: Out in the stix
1,607 posts, read 3,089,300 times
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i have an MBA with a concentration in HR, darn near impossible to get into HR, we relocated from NY to CT years ago because I got offered a good job in mortgage industry, that fell apart. Job market in Central CT has been tough for me had to take a step back...
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Old 08-20-2012, 04:54 PM
 
21,615 posts, read 31,180,666 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ctwhitechin View Post
i have an MBA with a concentration in HR, darn near impossible to get into HR, we relocated from NY to CT years ago because I got offered a good job in mortgage industry, that fell apart. Job market in Central CT has been tough for me had to take a step back...
It is VERY hard to get into HR, but there are a lot of HR positions available. You pretty much have to have an MBA from a respected school to be considered at most companies in CT, largely because many of the companies in CT are world headquarters.

With regards to the FFC job market outside of hedge funds, it's so/so. Financial companies aside, there are some companies in Shelton (Prudential, UI, Unilever, etc), a few in Danbury (Cartus, Boehringer Ingelheim) but if you head over the bridge to New Haven County, you have BIC, Subway, numerous massive medical centers (Yale, St Rays), companies like Covidien in North Haven, etc.

If you want to go up to Hartford, it's a whole different ballgame. The job market up there is very good when compared nationally and even regionally.
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Old 08-20-2012, 07:32 PM
 
Location: Southwestern Connecticut
811 posts, read 1,738,028 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kidyankee764 View Post
If you want to go up to Hartford, it's a whole different ballgame. The job market up there is very good when compared nationally and even regionally.
Seems to be true for the non hedge fund / asset mgmt jobs. I'm still in investment ops but I get tons of offers for somewhat similar roles, maybe a tad bit different but still back office. I haven't budged on those because most seem like a horizontal shift. I'm more interested in moving to trading/portfolio mgmt.

In Hartford I've found those jobs hard to come by, even the investment back office jobs. However I see tons of accounting/corporate finance jobs. Not my cup of tea but if you can apply your MBA to that or steer it that way then you should have a good outlook. Corporate finance focuses on the financials of the company and you usually work on analyzing the numbers for quarterly and year end reporting or analyzing possible future investment opportunities (upgrading equipment, outsourcing certain tasks). Treasury is another area, you analyze the liquidity and cash mgmt of the company. Closer to the investment side as maybe you'll deal with foreign exchanges and hedging risks but still corporate finance. The hours are better than those in investment banking.
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Old 08-20-2012, 08:14 PM
 
1,195 posts, read 1,625,262 times
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IMO - an MBA is utterly extreme overkill for most HR positions. It may be a requirement now because of so many people looking for work or the level of position but practically, the degree is not of any particular use to a day to day HR generalist. I say that as someone who has been a director at a company with a good HR department.

There are plenty of non-financial jobs in FFC. Just check out any list of all the medium+ size companies in the Stamford/Norwalk/FFLD area. Lots of companies and lots of job openings. Competition is high for everything, but that's just the overall market issue.
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Old 08-21-2012, 06:47 AM
 
Location: Fairfield County, CT
123 posts, read 166,440 times
Reputation: 80
How about a career in advertising/marketing? There are a lot of agencies in lower FFC. I have worked for one the past 13 years and it's very lucrative. You can do sales and/or account management. It's challenging and exciting, plus it's always evolving, so you don't get stale with your job skills.
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Old 08-21-2012, 07:14 AM
 
21,615 posts, read 31,180,666 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by basehead617 View Post
IMO - an MBA is utterly extreme overkill for most HR positions.
Not if you want senior HR management at a reputable company.
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Old 08-21-2012, 07:49 AM
 
Location: Coastal Connecticut
21,722 posts, read 28,048,669 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ConnNative View Post
How about a career in advertising/marketing? There are a lot of agencies in lower FFC. I have worked for one the past 13 years and it's very lucrative. You can do sales and/or account management. It's challenging and exciting, plus it's always evolving, so you don't get stale with your job skills.
Most of that is in Norwalk/Wilton. Not a whole lot in Stamford. Digitas is the only one I can think of, and that office is a shadow of its former self. Stamford is primarily financial, with a few big corps (Gartner, Philips, Starwood just moved there).

Norwalk has a lot of corporations (Reed, Diageo), web companies (Priceline, Kayak.com), and marketing services companies.
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Old 08-21-2012, 02:22 PM
 
Location: Fairfield County, CT
123 posts, read 166,440 times
Reputation: 80
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stylo View Post
Most of that is in Norwalk/Wilton. Not a whole lot in Stamford. Digitas is the only one I can think of, and that office is a shadow of its former self. Stamford is primarily financial, with a few big corps (Gartner, Philips, Starwood just moved there).

Norwalk has a lot of corporations (Reed, Diageo), web companies (Priceline, Kayak.com), and marketing services companies.
My company is in Westport.

There are some smaller agencies in Westport/Norwalk. Is the OP only looking at Stamford?
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