Class of 2008 is fucked for sure. Those guys are shoved between the people who have 2-3 years post-MBA experience and the fresh faced bright eyed bushy tailed but scared as hell graduand of the class of 2009. The guys from the class of 2009 who have managed to secure positions at major banks are the big winners. Even in good years, maybe 1 in 50 will rise to become real bankers, gain the SMD title and earn the big money. But if you have a seat at the table now, the odds that you will make it increases dramatically because the ranks have been decimated. The trouble of course is that graduating MBA students cannot get jobs. There is no end to the crisis this year so for the students who are talented but have no connections that they can call on, they might have to do things like consider a career in teaching to make ends meet. It is the rich kids whose daddy and mommy know all the right people who are going to walk away with the prize in these topsy-turvy times. If you cannot afford it, this is a really bad time to have partied hard for two years and saddled yourself with a six figure debt load. Without a banking job, you are going to learn what it feels like to have a noose around your neck that tightens every day.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/24/volunteer-layoff-opportunity-leadership-careers_basics.html Six Steps To Successful Volunteering Prozac for the long term unemployed. Hey, if an ex-WaMu employee can feel good about herself, so can you!
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/banking/story/566810.html From Charlotte. At least down south the women stick by their husbands when they lose their jobs. The quote from the schumck working at Wachovia is unreservedly sick.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/business/worldbusiness/05expats.html?ref=worldbusiness Good advice until you bump into some feral brats!
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/luxe-life/2009/03/06/abc-finds-humor-in-wall-streets-collapse.html They are going to make television serials about Wall Streeters who get canned and it is supposed to be funny.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/09/foreign-workers-visas-business-banks.html "Foreign Workers Banned From Wall Street" reads the headline. This piece of news is likely to make some of you very happy indeed. Poor Alice and Neha, it is not like they can head to Hong Kong or Mumbai as the first is so entirely dependent on equity issuance that the shut down has affected it even more than New York and salaries in the second cannot possibly support a Wharton type student loan repayment. Well, it is time to learn the ways of the world girl.
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/03/11/jobs-for-fed-up-wall-streeters-here-are-the-next-big-ones/ Headline: "Jobs for Fed-Up Wall Streeters" This article will make you sick. Does anyone really believe that weasels make good private or public sector leaders? The only truthful comment in this soaped up feel good piece is below: The bucket shops are seeing a frenzy of hiring activity as people who are addicted to the high life move to penny stock manipulation and money laundering. It will not matter to these people anyway. The platinum escort and crack whore both have to turn tricks to make money.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=agdquPfpIk78&refer=home Lots of great stuff in that article!
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=158567&perpage=6&pagenumber=1 This thread on the article above deserves to be here as well. I actually truly felt sorry for the Indian-British couple who got dumped by Merrill Lynch. Contrary to what some people think, the L visas are far harder to come by than the H visas which very often leads quite easily to a green card. For Merrill Lynch to move this guy from London to New York must have meant that he was basically number one in what he was doing. There is no other reason to spend the money or go through the trouble of applying for a L-1 visa for him and his family. Getting dumped at this point would mean that his career is over and for the sort of guy who would make it all the way to the top in a field as exciting as finance IT infrastructure this is the same as asking him to go hang himself.