The Career Center has partnered with Convergence, LLC., a financial information company, to offer services for students interested in all aspects of the financial industry.
To streamline the process of looking for jobs online, Convergence’s database offers information and insight on hundreds of U.S.-based financial firms, alongside profiles on 14,000 registered investment advisors.
This database, which is only available at four other universities, will offer all full-time Hopkins students access to daily-updated profiles of these companies and their business professionals, accessible through a simple interface.
The database, which sorts companies based on their location, size, assets and number of employees, can give students a fuller picture of each firm’s corporate environment as well as a more complete view of industries in which they would like to work.
“[There is] no service out there like this today. [It] will arm students with powerful data points that will differentiate them in an internship, application or job interview,” Convergence Co-Founder George Evans said. “One can see direct statistics relating to the internal growth and prospects within a particular firm, such as whether headcount is growing or shrinking. Direct access to contact information enables wide access to opportunities expensive to individually account for, allowing a direct segway to not only more options, but better ones more fitting to one’s expectations.”
The Convergence database covers over 50 distinct jobs across a variety of fields.
“[The database has] a lot of application [to different fields] — not only to computer engineers, but IT security, because that is going to be a huge aspect, especially dealing with financial security,” Sarah Reifer, assistant director and counselor for the Career Center, said.
The Convergence database was introduced to Hopkins students on Sept. 10 at an event in Hackerman Hall. More than 90 students listened to a tutorial presentation to learn about Convergence’s services and how to use the database.
Reifer is also available to teach students how to use the database, which is accessible through J-Connect, the Career Center’s online portal.
The Career Center also offers additional resources, such as a glossary of industry acronyms and a document of industry job descriptions, to aid students in interpreting the information available on Convergence.
“[The site] is very searchable. However, given the wealth of information, you need to know what you’re looking at. To make best use of the service, the glossary terms will be especially useful. You can get that [and more] by emailing me or the Career Center,” Reifer said.
Evans said that the Convergence database is updated daily with new jobs and information from different firms.
“We are working with career services on the jobs that are in this industry,” Evans said. “[The] next step is to map majors to these particular roles and responsibilities. We have also discussed with Career Services aligning coursework with this industry and will eventually look to work directly with professors to embed this data in that coursework.”
Evans intends for Convergence to evolve in conjunction with its target audience, which consists of students who are searching for their jobs.
Reifer said that students need to keep their minds open when looking for jobs, because many industries offer positions that students from a wide variety of academic backgrounds could fill.
“Something we in the Career Center talk about all the time is that [a student’s] major is a very important part of developing a skill set, but major does not dictate industry,” Reifer said. “Students from a variety of majors can pursue careers in a variety of industries. It’s all about acquiring and demonstrating skill set… This is a resource to explore those options.”
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