Great…more experience to flood the contracting market…
talk about luck… I’m working in this industry at the worst time in decades, maybe close to a century.
If I had that experience I would go to a HF or setup my own shop. I think it would be a waste to bounce from bank to bank unless the money is right.
Not sure if 20 equals a flood…
Yeah, I was thinking that too.
would you agree that there is a lot of experience presently flooding the job market right now?
Yes, but if each of these twenty people decides to start up their own fund, and they need to hire some analysts to help them, say 2 each. That would suggest that 20 people leaving Goldman turned into 40 more analyst jobs out there.
After news of Citibank laying off 4500, JP Morgan laying off 1000, Bank of America laying off 30,000, etc… Another 20 peple from Goldman’s trading desk is just a drop in the bucket.
Starting a hedge fund today would not be easy. Everyone has the same idea and there is only so much investor money to go around.
I agree, but I do think it is a lot easier to raise money or get meetings, etc. if you say “I have X>5 years of experience trading at Goldman.”
My main points are
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20 more people isn’t more than rounding error, compared to previous layoffs.
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These particular guys might well be a source of new jobs, at least for the kind of jobs that people on this forum might want.
And these points are not predictions, they’re just trying to douse some of the cynicism that masquerades as critical thinking here.
20-30 guys off the trading floor will probably result in support staff being canned later (if not already). Not big news, but a sign that the industry is still shrinking. I’d prefer small victories over small defeats.
Ok I agree that the 20 people is not really a big deal in isolation, although it is a bit depressing when viewed with layoffs from all these other firms. I guess what I’m trying to say (in response to bpulog) is that starting a hedge fund is not really a viable option for most laid off finance people. You need to be quite a senior person to have enough influence to attract $100 million in investments, or whatever you need to start a fund. The normal 5-year GS VP/director guy has little chance to do this in today’s environment. Instead of being job creators, they are more likely to struggle for a year or so before accepting a somewhat less desirable job in finance. Or if they are already wealthy, like with $20 million or so in assets, they might just move somewhere cheap and retire.
I agree that further layoffs for support staff are possible. However, it’s more likely that the support staff have already been downsized. The axe tends to fall on these guys before the front office guys.
yeah my point wasnt omg 20 people just flooded the market what will we ever do…my point was great…just add it to the list…and from a solid name
scrutiny people…
Ah, so that’s what you meant by “flood,” my mistake.
Most people who make it big starting a new fund are people that left voluntarily their job. If Goldman is laying them off, chances are they weren’t the best performers.
Not necessarily. For instance, everyone who ran a prop desk at big banks was basically fired. Their businesses shut down; it’s not that they necessarily underperformed. These guys are the most qualified to run hedge funds, in fact. Not sure what is the case with these 20 GS guys, of course.
The 20 that were let go were the bottom of the barrel. I wouldn’t sweat it. Stop dwelling on these headlins and throwing yourself in an “oh sht” mindset. It’s just going to harm you. Work hard, do you best, and things will work out. Worrying about all this noise never made anyone successful.
Depends what division you’re talking about, but I can tell you qualified sales people are in short supply.
NY is actually adding finance jobs at the moment. Of course, part of this is because they are absorbing jobs from other places where finance people are getting ass-reamed (cough… London).
Word, f*ck fear.
I know, right? Why couldn’t I have started in the early 90s or something, I would be retired by now even with half of my current skill. Starting in 2006 = life planning fail.