Losing your job is one of the most traumatic experiences people can go through, but if you’ve been made redundant, it’s often your own fault. Most people feel a deep sense of shock and despair. However, if you logically look at why it happened, it could lead to a better understanding of how to get back into the job market and more importantly, to actually get employed again. Admitting responsibility, rather... Read more

Morgan Stanley Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said on Saturday that the government definitely needs to raise taxes on the rich to address its budget deficit. "The wealthiest can afford to pay more in taxes. That's a part of the deal,” she told an Economist “World 2012” summit. "I don't know anyone that doesn't agree with that," Porat said. "The wealth disparity between the lowest and the highest continues to expand,... Read more

We’ve reported it before: bankers should expect dismal bonuses this year – with average cuts projected at about 30 percent over 2010. The bright side is that financial firms will likely compensate employees instead with packages of depressed stock – which could balloon to fortunes in the future, DealBook reports. The article quotes a corporate law and finance professor at Yale: “This year is the perfect situation where they can... Read more

Goldman Sachs may be a 2nd tier bank, but it still has 25 applicants per role Goldman Sachs isn’t what it was. We’ve pointed out a few times that J.P. Morgan appears to be a better location for traders right now. In today’s Financial News, William Wright places Goldman in a second tier of banks, including BarCap and Citi, that are merely “muddling through.” The new top tier, according to Wright,... Read more

Regulators are scrutinizing the fact that over the past five years, 136 analysts at credit-rating firms Moody’s, S&P and Fitch have left to work for the firms they once rated, according to The Wall Street Journal. Lawmakers have questioned whether analysts were too soft on financial services companies in hopes of landing higher-paying Wall Street jobs. Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) told the paper: “You are rating someone and... Read more

Financial services businesses continue to be at risk for heavy downsizing activity—although job cuts are still well below the “recession high” of 2008, says global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Financial firms announced 1,681 job cuts in November, bringing the year-to-date total for the sector to 56,191, Challenger, Gray announced in a press release. That's up 162 percent from 21,430 financial cuts by this point a year ago, says the... Read more

By Uzair Bawany, founder and managing partner of Fairway Search Partners Candidates typically view writing resumes in the way they once treated exam revision: it is left until the last minute. After all, few people enjoy having to sell themselves, digging deep into their memories to uncover what they have contributed to organizations in the past and justifying their value to potential employers. For many, writing a resume can bring... Read more

An exit interview seems like a riskless trade. A 15-minute nirvana in which you get to vent your spleen after years of grovelling obeisance. It may seem that there’s limited downside to a frank and forthright exit interview. After all, you’ve already resigned. If you’re going to a competitor, there’s surely a limited amount the most vindictive manager can do to sabotage your prospects. If you’re going to a client, your... Read more

Here it is, one of those tried-and-true interview questions you’ve been waiting for: “Tell me about one or two of your greatest weaknesses.” It’s a sticky question because you can easily end up coming across as either unrealistically superior (“Weaknesses, really? Let me think…”) or embarrassingly cliché (“I have to admit, I’m a terrible perfectionist”). Simply posing as an overachiever when asked about your shortcomings will usually come across as insincere... Read more

While sometimes a cigar really is just a cigar, in this case a credit rating downgrade is really about a global shift in banking power. Or so says Standard & Poor’s Rating Service, whose recent downgrade of six of the largest U.S. financial institutions and the upgrade of two Chinese banks indicates Asian banks are rising in influence. That's according to a Wall Street Journal article. Asian governments' greater willingness to... Read more

Stephen Hickey, head of Goldman Sachs global leveraged finance plans to retire at the end of the year. [Bloomberg] David Mayhew is stepping down from a 40-year reign as chairman of JPMorgan Cazenove in London. [Financial Times] Dick Averitt next year will leave his role as Raymond James Financial Services chairman and CEO. Dennis Zank, currently the president of Raymond James & Associates, will serve as COO. Scott Curtis was named... Read more

No wonder so many Asian students are traveling to the U.S. to tackle local MBA programs. Those professionals taking home $60,000 per annum pre-MBA might expect to walk away with $200,000 within five years of completing a top-echelon MBA, according to the latest reports. Last year, 2,000 Asian students traveled to Western Europe to enhance their business knowledge, and thousands more took off to Australia and the United States, according to... Read more

Could missing your company’s holiday bash bust your career? Probably not, but many company managers and recruitment experts want you there anyway. Sixty-six percent of senior finance managers responding to a new U.S. poll by staffing firm OfficeTeam actually disagree with the notion that it’s “an unwritten rule that employees should make an appearance at the holiday party.” That leaves 34 percent of finance executives who indicated that showing up at... Read more

Options trading is like crack for brokerages. Or so says one securities attorney who believes the trend of brokerages like TD Ameritrade, Schwab, Fidelity, E*Trade and Scottrade toward trading outside of traditional stocks as against consumer interest, according to Investment News today. Indeed, options trading is up a whopping 22 percent since October. The lawyer reported a surge of calls related to options trading in the past six months. “They're... Read more

If there is ever a poignant piece of advice that university lecturers and textbooks failed to warn me about upon graduating and entering the workforce, it is the fundamentals of office politics. Not long after finding my feet in my new professional environment, I learned pretty quickly that sometimes it’s the brownnosing and “who you know, not what you know” ticket that guarantees movement up the corporate ladder. I have... Read more

If you think your MBA is going to prepare you for a career in M&A or investment banking, think again. A new survey found that nearly nine out of 10 (86 percent) MBA graduates felt unprepared when completing a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) analysis. Granted, the survey, which was conducted by Training The Street (TTS), a leading corporate training provider for a majority of Wall Street firms and top tier... Read more

Editor's note: This article first appeared on our Australian site. A spate of layoffs in recent months means some financial services professionals face the daunting prospect of job hunting while unemployed. Those fortunate enough to get an interview will of course be asked why their old employer got rid of them. Here’s a short guide to dealing with that situation. 1) Chill: the interviewer would be more worried if you... Read more

Campus Occupy Wall Street protesters are complicating finance recruiting, according to DealBook. At some schools, anger at big banks has turned the on-campus recruiting process into a crucible of controversy. “I teach financial markets, and it’s a little like teaching R.O.T.C. during the Vietnam War,” said Robert J. Shiller, a professor of economics at Yale University. “You have this sense that something’s amiss.” Op-eds in student newspapers at top schools... Read more

Editor's note: This article first appeared on our Singapore site. We spoke with Ebru Kapusiz – a woman who has been there, done that, when it comes to private banking. Her career spans more than 15 years and includes stints in asset management, fixed income securities trading and private banking in Australia, Turkey and Singapore. Most recently she was an associate director at UBS Wealth Management in Singapore. Kapusiz now runs... Read more

Have you ever considered looking beyond the financial markets to find a finance job? No? Well, you may want to think about this. While the financial sector is shrinking in the wake of the economic meltdown, continuing shocks to the financial system from the European sovereign crises, and a complete inability of Washington politicians to agree on anything, cash is piling up on Main Street. Treasury Strategies, a Washington-based treasury... Read more