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

more banks cutting jobs...

TODAYonline | Hot News | RBS cuts 4,800 jobs, dumps equities, mergers divisions

French bank BNP Paribas cutting jobs in Singapore

TODAYonline | Business | Foreign banks cutting jobs here

Asia Singapore: Singapore job outlook bleak in 2012

My Fixed Income Trader friend said no bonus for last year's performance, the second half of last year wiped out most profits earned during the first half of the year. He said he is lucky to still have a job. Bonus? He said don't even think about it.

How are the rest of you all doing? :o

Those who were cut during the Lehman crisis quickly found work in at most 6 months, so what's there to be afraid of?

People outside of finance tend to exaggerate such job cutting news to psychologically compensate themselves for not having the good fortune of landing a job in finance.

have u been retrenched before or know someone who has been retrenched? Its easy to talk big when u r not in the situation. My company was one of the companies involved in the news about retrenchments last year.

The number was small compared to the whole staff strength so it did not really ring much alarm bells as compared to 2008-2009, but still it was hard to see someone go, especially when he is not young and he has a family with young children.

This time its quite real though, and to deny it is naive.

My [front office] sector has seen quite a bit of cut backs throughout the industry, and banks like RBS have closed entire divisions globally.

The problem is that, if you do get cut now, likely you are out of the industry for a while because no one is hiring, and you hope that your retrenchment package is enough to tide you over to the next job.

Had a friend below 30 who was earning $15k a month, and was retrenched during 2008. He had no retrenchment package and was stuck jobless for almost 2 years before he got lucky and found a job paying $10k+. Before that, he was only getting offers of between $4 to 6k.

You have to remember that top paying jobs are still scarce, and if you lose yours its not easy to get another one in this environment. If you take a $4 to 6k job, it resets your salary scale and its hard to climb back to where you once were.

So no, I wouldn't underestimate this cycle.

Well, I have been in finance for more than 10 years, not sure what is this good fortune you are referring to. Other than the high pay, there is nothing good about it. Long hours, demanding targets and surrounded by arrogant, greedy and fat colleagues who think they are god's gift to the world. Too bad I love money too much, so cannot bring myself to retire or start my own business.

And at the end of the day, regardless of what profession you in, you are still a salaried employee working for someone. You are just a worker. Your ricebowl still depend on someone else. Until you start your own company, you are just someone's b**ch.

You said there's nothing good about it, and yet in the same breath, you said you love money too much (cos the job pays well).

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.

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.

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.

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