People in the financial industry, are you all worried about your jobs?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Agree, there are indeed some retrenchments ongoing in some european banks, but nothing massive.
This world may not need funky structured CDOs, but it still need financial services from basic depo/loan, capital market access, trade financing, custodial services, to sophisticated risk management hedging, investment advisory, M&A/Corp finance advisory.

Other industries are going through tough times, a few headlines like below can also be seen
Nokia Siemens to Cut Work Force by 17,000
Amd Slashes 10% Of Workforce

Well two things :
- finance is more prone to hire / fire practices because (1) its an ppl industry where you can ramp up capacity or capability fairly quickly simply by hiring experienced ppl (in other industries, capacity tends to be capped by infrastructural constraints ) (2) salaries are a large component of total cost in finance (hence cutting jobs is v efficient way to bring down cost base)

- finance professionals tend to have a harder time finding an equivalent paying job to maintain the family's lifestyle (no sympathy expected here , but its nonetheless a reality )

Whats left unsaid in this thread so far is that there is also another group of innocent casualties in this environment - ie the graduating mba finance and banking and finance grads, which went into their courses years ago bright eyed and with dreams of the $5 to 10k job at 25, a decision made at a time the financial industry seemed the hottest sector out there. Its almost like a replay of the life sciences story.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Fact is you can get retrenched in any job, even civil service and stat boards. Some taxi drivers are also asked (forced) to quit driving!

The risk is about the same, just that finance is a bigger target for people to talk about.

Given this risk of getting the sack, it's always better to be in finance cos it pays well.

When the semicon industry fired people by the thousands, no one bat an eyelid.

civil service and stat board do not retrench ppl. They may let ppl go due to bad performance or disciplinary issues. That is not retrenchment.

n not every finance job is equal. Backroom ops dun pay well. I have seen many grads thought they are going to get a good deal cos they got to join a bank. Most are grads with honours or even first class but they have no idea what ops is about so they join ops. After 2+ years then they realise they are the wrong side of the pecking order. V hard to move to front office afterthat.

Banking job pays well... (only if you are in the right position.)

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That was my view as well be4 i saw such a retrenchment exercise for myself .

Reality is - its not usually the bad performers. I have seen folks let go for a host of reasons ie they are the rm for a sector that the bank wants to reduce exposure to, they were recently promoted (hence last in first out), they just moved to another dept/country within the same bank, they just joined the bank, they are too expensive , they are mid to late 40s, they hv made some high lvl enemies etc.

So its quite real and quite a scary time.

Agree with this fully. Anyone who thinks he will be spared because he is a good performer is kidding himself.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Fact is your friend found a high-paying job again.

Getting retrenched is not as scary as it sounds.

Moreover, not everyone gets retrenched. It's usually the bad performers and usually the minority. The big fat cats are always spared.

Taking the 2 years lost of income into consideration. It is a big deal.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Fact is you can get retrenched in any job, even civil service and stat boards. Some taxi drivers are also asked (forced) to quit driving!

The risk is about the same, just that finance is a bigger target for people to talk about.

Given this risk of getting the sack, it's always better to be in finance cos it pays well.

When the semicon industry fired people by the thousands, no one bat an eyelid.

To be frank it is easier to get sack in finance then other sectors. High risk high return is a fair game. Not to mention the long hours you have to put in in this sector.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

civil service and stat board do not retrench ppl. They may let ppl go due to bad performance or disciplinary issues. That is not retrenchment.

n not every finance job is equal. Backroom ops dun pay well. I have seen many grads thought they are going to get a good deal cos they got to join a bank. Most are grads with honours or even first class but they have no idea what ops is about so they join ops. After 2+ years then they realise they are the wrong side of the pecking order. V hard to move to front office afterthat.

Banking job pays well... (only if you are in the right position.)

Agreed fully.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

not every finance job is equal. Backroom ops dun pay well. I have seen many grads thought they are going to get a good deal cos they got to join a bank. Most are grads with honours or even first class but they have no idea what ops is about so they join ops. After 2+ years then they realise they are the wrong side of the pecking order. V hard to move to front office afterthat.

Banking job pays well... (only if you are in the right position.)

No true. Backroom ops only look like underpaid because compared to frontline. But if you compare to other backroom jobs in non-banks pay is still much higher.

Originally Posted by restricted

No true. Backroom ops only look like underpaid because compared to frontline. But if you compare to other backroom jobs in non-banks pay is still much higher.

depends on what u compare against. non banks is a v wide range.

Originally Posted by restricted

No true. Backroom ops only look like underpaid because compared to frontline. But if you compare to other backroom jobs in non-banks pay is still much higher.

once you're retrenched from a backroom bank job, very hard to find jobs in other industries.
at least for backroom jobs in non banks, you'll have more transferable skills.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

once you're retrenched from a backroom bank job, very hard to find jobs in other industries.
at least for backroom jobs in non banks, you'll have more transferable skills.

not to mention some backroom ops are now outsourced overseas...