What the Failure of Lehman Bros Means for You
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008We expect you will have heard the news about the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers over this weekend, as well as the hasty £28 billion takeover of Merrill Lynch by the Bank of America.
Obviously it can be a traumatic experience to lose your job, especially if you have spent much time and effort in advancing your career and seeking to be the best you can be.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU?
If you’re currently looking for a position in the banking and finance sector, now is the time to start becoming incredibly proactive. In a time of economic boom, the City of London alone hires around 10,000 new graduates each year, and even then the competition between candidates is incredibly fierce, particularly around the bulge bracket (largest) banks. The situation now is much more challenging.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS:
We can’t predict the future with regards to the fate of other banks and institutions. However, it’s very easy to see what has to happen in the employment market within banking and finance.
1. HIRING WILL EVENTUALLY TURN AROUND
Naturally in light of recent events most banks will be very conservative with regards to hiring staff. Many of the largest banks have limited or cut their graduate schemes already. When the economy turns around and things start to improve, hiring will gradually increase again.
2. EXPERIENCED STAFF WILL GET HIRED FIRST
Thousands of staff from Lehman’s and those laid off from other banks will now be searching for jobs. When a recruiter is faced with the choice of an inexperienced graduate or someone who already has the experience, they will almost always choose experience. Additionally, the salaries of experienced staff are likely to fall, since any job is better than no job and laid-off staff will be keen to find work as soon as possible.
3. FINALLY GRADUATES WILL START GETTING HIRED AGAIN
The sector will re-hire the best staff from Lehmans and other banks first. Therefore as a graduate, it’s almost certain that you will further down the pecking order.
THE IMPLICATIONS:
The implication of all this is that, for graduates or those seeking the first position in finance, it could be a while - months or even a couple of years - before the situation changes.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
You will certainly need to take an unconventional approach to landing that first job:
Take a long-term view:
What goes down must come back up, so at some point the situation will improve. You may have to ride out the storm for a few months or a couple of years, but if you know your goal is to work in finance, then you can spend that time doing everything possible to improve your chances of landing a job.
Be proactive:
Take alternative approaches to seeking a career; create a vacancy for yourself by convincing a company of the value you can provide; create a winning CV and apply speculatively; do what the most City high-fliers do when it comes to getting something they want.
Increase your value to a company:
Invest in yourself; learn everything you can about the sector; buy books or courses and train yourself on everything you need to know for your target role, so that you are ready to work ’straight out of the box’; become an expert who can start bringing in revenue for the company from day one.
WHAT’S THE WORD FROM THE TOP?
Yesterday we spoke to the CEO of a £20 billion asset management firm, who gave these words of advice:
“It is relatively simple for companies with solid balance sheets who are looking to rationalise - poorly performing employees will lose their jobs and will find it hard to find employment elsewhere. Good employees, who work hard, develop themselves through specialist training and add real value will retain their jobs and do very well, and when the markets turn they will be in a very good position. This is true for both experienced and entry level employees.”
THE TOP 20% WILL SURVIVE:
In other words, the top 20% will be safe in their jobs and ride the wave back up to the top of the next boom. If you’re not in that top 20% of proactive, value-contributing workers, you need to evaluate yourself and see how to you can contribute more value to the company in order to secure your position.
WHAT NOW?
We know that at times like this extra guidance is vital, so in addition to the usual advice from CEOs, finance professionals and experts, our full-day workshop in London this month will now also show you how you should approach job seeking in this new and more challenging environment.
To find out more, visit www.benedix.co.uk/workshop
Good luck with your career search over the next few months and if we can help at all, let us know.