"Stop complaining you can't find a new banking job. You just need to do this"

4 October 2024

3 minute read

"Stop complaining you can't find a new banking job. You just need to do this"

When I visit this site, I see more and more people complaining that after decades of working in banking or markets, they are unemployed and no one will hire them.

If you're in this position, you are doing something wrong. There is always someone who will hire you; you just have to lay the groundwork first.

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Whenever I send in an application for a job, the first thing that I do is to look for someone in my network - preferably someone I have worked closely with in the past - who is already working for the firm I'm applying to.

I ask that person to recommend me to the hiring manager for that role. Even if I don't have the exact skill set, they will often put in a good word to the effect that I am a good guy and can do the job. This makes a lot of difference. I've had several interviews and have only just begun looking in the US.

I'm able to do this because I've had a long career in banking myself, and because I have always tried to be nice to people. Whenever I can, I've helped people in difficult positions and I have nurtured hundreds of juniors. Many of those juniors are now in their 30s, and they are willing to help me in return. When I left my previous employer, I sent emails saying goodbye and thanking over 600 people; 300 of them responded.

It's a reminder that when you work in banking and financial services, it helps to be kind and to be nice. Not just because it's the right thing to do, but because there are real career benefits. If you don't, the cold spells in your career will be all the colder. This is an industry based on networks and if you have the right network, you will fare much better. The sooner you embed this into your career, the better you will fare.

Micah Mccall is the pseudonym of a former banking MD in New York

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AUTHORMicah Mccall

Insider Comment

Be
Bernie B.
7 October 2024
Micah is comparing apple and oranges.
Being an “former banking MD in New York” (Micah) is a very different job from being a “Quant Trader” (Pierre) and working for a “bank” does not mean you are a banker (Pierre is not).
Being nice and cultivating relationships is part of any job. For most US banks I used to work for (long ago now), cultivating relationship was part of yearly evaluation, however the networking is different and not leverageable in the same way when changing job.
Being a FORMER banking MD in New York, Micah missed the central point of Pierre’s article, which talked about the current market conditions right now. It is not all about your Micah.
The market right now is difficult for many people, including Pierre, who is right when writing “I keep seeing the same job posted over and over again, a few months apart”.
Pierre was also right when writing “are engaged in the dubious practice of posting jobs that don't really exist”, however, I will add some nuance here.
Recruiters are simply doing what they are told to do, hoping to get a percentage of your first annual guaranteed income (as Pierre mentioned, the market is difficult for them, so they would “sell any CV” right now), which explains why some job adverts come back every few months (for more than a year for some of them) with the same or different recruiters.
Another thing to realise is that recruiters rarely care about the jobseekers, and for them, it is a simple volume game. For them, it is the same effort to forward a mid-level CV than a senior-level CV, expect their hit rate is 10 times higher for a mid-level CV, and the guaranteed first year TC won’t be that different. You do the maths, why would they waste time with senior people?
My last statement leads to the practice of not being honest about the job description (e.g. TC) and trying to attract good CVs at any cost, and “offering” them something different. Last point: if you are “more senior”, people will think you will only do management tasks, so make your own conclusion on how to write your CV if you really want a job.
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