REVIEW MY CV : I am highly experienced and perfectly competent, but am getting nowhere

I am currently what is classed as "a statistic" as my VC shop closed doors recently. I have spoken to recruitment agents who have made some suggestions which have been incorporated in my resume, yet I almost without fail get the "we have reviewed this but it is not suitable" spiel.

Given that most of the positions I have applied for fall well within my ambit of technical skills and I think I am also quite competent on my soft skill set, the only conclusion I can draw (apart from the "poor market") is that despite assertions from agents to the contrary, this is a poor resume and my skill set obviously no longer fits into the City.

Anyone care to give me some opinions on the resume and/or on which positions I should focus my searches?. I would prefer something in asset management (PM or APM) or in the PE/VC field. I'd prefer not to be boxed into a purely analytical role.

EDUCATION

2000 - 2003 CFA INSTITUTE

Passed Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) examinations

1996 - 1997 LONDON SECURITIES INSTITUTE (now SECURITIES & INVESTMENT INSTITUTE)

Registered Persons Exam

1993 - 1993 LEADING SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY

1990 - 1992 LEADING SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITY

Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com General)

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

June 06 - May 09 XXX Plc, London

Investment Associate, analysis, valuations, deal origination and structuring

· Primary duties involved sourcing investment opportunities, sectoral research, undertaking company analysis and valuations, structuring funding schedules and preparing draft flotation documentation.

· Intimately involved in six investments and flotations and one off market transaction.

Deal sizes ranged between 1million and 3.8 million enterprise value.

o ABC - IRR 150%

o DEF - loss of investment

o GHI- IRR 200%

o JKL - loss of investment as unable to raise the budgeted second tranche of exploration funding in current environment despite promising assay results.

o MNO - IRR 50%

o PQR - IRR 150%

· Streamlined the investment valuation process by building financial projection models along with industry FCFF/FCFE/DDM/EVA/ models. De-facto Chief Technology Officer.

· Negotiating service contracts.

April 05 - March 06 YYY UK, London

Portfolio structuring, macro economic trends, client proposals

· Primary duties involved structuring model portfolios in GBP, US Dollar and Euro in three differing volatilities per currency on a quarterly basis and presenting to portfolio managers and directors. Portfolios outperformed their benchmarks (APCIMS) two-thirds of the time. AUM exceed 800 million.

· I advised investment professionals on changing economic conditions. Also tasked with client communications by writing weekly and monthly articles for the company website which led to a measurable increase in client interaction and trade on the broking desk.

June 02 - January 05 ZZZ CONSULTING, Johannesburg, South Africa

Business Consultant, General Business

· AAA Capital Partners drawing up the business plan and business model for a long/short hedge fund. Addressed legal, technical, financial, personnel and strategic issues. The business launched successfully and operated profitably from day one.

· Director of BBB (a brand extension company). Instrumental in pitch to major global packaged food company on a new product line. Researched all aspects of commercializing the idea including market research, sourcing of the raw product, production methods and strategic partners, bottling and packaging solutions, logistics and distribution of the finished product, branding and marketing campaigns and product promotions. I prepared a business plan and forecast proforma financial figures. BBB awarded entire advertising campaigns for one of the largest motor dealerships in SA, one of the largest banks in South Africa, and a major motor company.

June 95 - May 02 Financial Services Group, Johannesburg, South Africa

Portfolio manager, Head of Equity Research, Buy/Sell Analyst, Corporate Finance

· I started as a private client portfolio manager in 1995. Grew number of clients to 400 within two years. Other contributions included writing and editing a monthly investment news client newsletter and lecturing students on behalf of the JSE and at business colleges. In addition, I wrote chapters in text books for these colleges.

· In November 1997 .I was promoted to Head of Equity Research - the youngest in South Africa. The market was primarily on the Sell side focussing on small to medium cap companies. I evaluated and valued the flotations of 26 companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) for the Corporate Finance team.

· Improved number of trading deals per broker by starting a daily trading tips newsletter.

· Developed training courses for new brokers improving client/broker service levels and led to improved trades per client.

· Appearances on national financial TV show as a market pundit and wrote market related articles for national newspapers.

· In January 2001 I was transferred to the Institutional Asset Management desk and was now working as a Buy Side analyst and Assistant Portfolio Manager. My investment recommendations helped improve fund performance dramatically, catapulting APT fund managers from #5 best performing fund manager in South Africa to #2 over one year (circa 18% p.a. return on Domestic Balanced Mandate).

March 94 - June 95 Financial Services Group, South Africa

Trainee Equity Analyst, Stock Broking

· 5th largest stockbroking firm on the JSE and the largest independent one.

· Training in equity valuations and modeling.

· Aided senior analysts developing models, sourcing information and editing reports.

· Developed a basic financial information system for internal company use. This ran flawlessly for six months on a manual update basis (using the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Tricklefeed updates) before the company finally decided to adopt Bloombergs.

LANGUAGES

Language: English

Level: Mother Tongue

Language: Afrikaans (Dutch dialect)

Level: Read, write, speak

Language: Hebrew

Level: Basic read, write

VISA STATUS

Valid until November 2011. Application for indefinite leave to remain in March 2010.