Basically we need to pass the CFA this June Passing will give us a leg up. Not passing won’t be good… But even a leg up… There will be lots of people with layoff packages and extra time. Might decide, now’s the time to take the CFA 
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/the-layoff-league-tables/?hp his hasn’t been a good second half of the year for investment banks. Rocked by the summer’s troubles in the credit market — the subprime mortgage meltdown, the drought of buyers for leveraged loans — firms across Wall Street and around the world felt the pain, which has become apparent through billions of dollars in writedowns. And with that have come large numbers of layoffs. To help sort through the mess, DealBook has compiled a sort of reverse league table, where being at the top is not something to boast about. From Bear Stearns to Barclays, most of the major banks have resorted to job cuts in some form since the summer. More will probably follow. After his company announced a 93 percent drop in profits at its investment bank last week, Bank of America’s chief executive, Kenneth Lewis, said on a conference call that he will probably take on major cost-cutting. “I’ve had all the fun I can stand in investment banking right now,” he said. (On Monday, Bank of America said that its head of structured products was leaving.) As The New York Times reported Monday, 42,404 financial jobs have been cut at New York firms this year, according to the job-placement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Most of that number doesn’t necessarily relate to the summer’s credit crunch; about half stems from a broad restructuring that Citigroup announced this spring. More recently, though, most of the cuts made by investment banks have been tied to losses in debt-related operations, such as structured credit and leveraged finance. Many of the investment banks’ job cuts have been outside New York, such as HSBC’s shuttering of its U.S. mortgage unit in Indiana. The layoffs have climbed high up the totem pole: They include the firings of top executives at Merrill Lynch and UBS. With some banks having yet to report their third-quarter earnings, many fear that more pink slips are being drawn up. Still, a few banks have managed to avoid hitting this list so far. Perhaps most notably, the firm that reported a 79 percent increase in profit comes to mind. Some notes: The figures in the table below come from reported job losses since the summer, nearly all of which the banks have attributed to weakness in their debt-related operations. Also, thanks to some readers’ comments, we added Wachovia to the table Tuesday morning. Have any tips? Let us know in the comments below. Go to Previous Item from DealBook » Bank Number of Layoffs Affected Areas Additional senior executives fired/forced out UBS 1500 investment bank Huw Jenkins, head of UBS investment bank Lehman Brothers 1200 BNC Mortgage, a home-lending unit Morgan Stanley 900 investment banking, mortgage servicing (both worldwide) HSBC 600 U.S. mortgage unit based in Indiana Bear Stearns 550 Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage and Encore Credit, two mortgage-origination units Warren J. Spector, co-president Credit Suisse 320 investment banking (170); mortgage-backed securities (150) Wachovia 200 investment banking Royal Bank of Scotland 6 collateralized debt obligations at RBS Greenwich Capital Rick Caplan, co-head of CDO’s J.P. Morgan Chase “less than 10 percent” of its fixed-income division structured credit, leveraged finance Merrill Lynch Osman Semerci, head of fixed income; Dale M. Lattanzio, head of structured products Barclays Capital Edward Cahill, director of CDO’s Bank of America Chris Hentemann, head of global structure products
Bank of America to Eliminate 3,000 Jobs By IEVA M. AUGSTUMS – 58 minutes ago CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Bank of America Corp. said Wednesday it will eliminate 3,000 jobs, an announcement that came less than a week after the nation’s second-largest bank reported a huge drop in earnings for the third quarter. The cuts will affect less than 2 percent of the company’s staff. Most of them will be from Bank of America’s Global Corporate and Investment Banking unit, the company said. The Charlotte-based bank also said Wednesday that it is launching a strategic review of its investment banking business.
note that unfortunately a lot of people being laid off also have their letters too , the market could be flooded which means you need the right experience.
yeah, but the good thing is there will be something of a flight to quality hopefully. The exams will likely be more competitive, as will be b-schools
if you’re not in finance and are looking to get into it, the reruitment process in the future will certainly be more challenging given that “new talent” is now flooding the market. and you will find, if you decide to go through the recruitment process, that relevant work experience will likely be the most valuable qualification you have
totally concur with you numi - with the current economy - most employers the looking for real experience on the cheap. the qualification with no experienc will mean little right now.