What is the end result for us...

My heart goes out to all LEH employees. My best friend (25 yrs old) was just married last week, bought a condo this past spring…and now his job is toast. Luckily he is on a solid team that will be moving over to another shop by the end of the week. BUt for the not so lucky…I truly feel aweful for them…especially the old timers with net worth tied up in LEH stock. Does the financial crisis result in: a) a mass exodus of people from the industry b) younger people looking at CFA program in a new light-wanting to increase skill set and dust off resume c) none of the above? or something totally different?

I dunno the answer but I hear ya on thoughts going out to LEH employees. For those on this board, sorry, dont know what else can be said…

I guess Merill’s hiring freeze won’t end anytime soon. Sorry to the LEH guys on the board.

Don’t forget the people at both MER and BOFA. A large portion of the people will be wiped out. The worst part is that the people at MER had no frickin clue this was coming. BOFA kinda knew it was a candidate for the LEH bid.

if merrill people read the wsj last friday - they would have read that boa was unlikley to buy leh as merrill may be on the cards …

I think there will be an exodus of people from the industry. It’s going to be terribly difficult to land a good banking or trading job at a sell-side firm in the future. Also think there will be an influx of boutique ibanks, etc. being formed over the coming months. End result is a very select few financial services firms running the entire industry… I personally think having a couple superpower firms dabbling in retail and institutional banking is horrible for everyone. This solidifies the fact that GS is the premier financial services firm in the world. Note: I hate bank of america (not an employee)

I’m already feeling bad for the 09’ graduates. I thought I had it bad graduating this year. Jobs in financials are going to be scarce in the next few years.

Entourage is on. I am out.

thanks mpnoonan - just recorded that on tivo for my husband!

  1. I don’t believe you will see a mass exodus of people from the industry but you may see wages normalize and come down over time. In my opinion, banks have been overpaying many employees. Declines in wages may encourage bright undergrads to consider careers in the sciences, education, medicine etc. because the opportunity cost of a job in financial services has lowered. This is probably in society’s best interest. 2. Growth in CFA candidates will continue to grow. Hopefully, the ethical conduct required by charterholders becomes valuable in the eyes of employers. 3. This is really just the process of creative destruction. The industry has grown too large (looked at the size of the financials contribution to GDP over the last decade relative to historical averages) and we need to clear the forest so that we can learn from our lessons and grow from a stronger foundation. Bubbles are not new and will likely overextend ourselves in the future. Just my two cents…

john_mclaugj Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > 1. I don’t believe you will see a mass exodus of > people from the industry but you may see wages > normalize and come down over time. In my opinion, > banks have been overpaying many employees. > Declines in wages may encourage bright undergrads > to consider careers in the sciences, education, > medicine etc. because the opportunity cost of a > job in financial services has lowered. This is > probably in society’s best interest. well put!

The Edge Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > if merrill people read the wsj last friday - they > would have read that boa was unlikley to buy leh > as merrill may be on the cards … I saw that article as well. I don’t think they were expecting to happen it over the weekend… Yet, if BOFA didn’t do the takeover and no LEH deal was in place, MER would have probably dipping into the single digits tomorrow

I think anybody looking to get a job in the industry anytime soon is going to be out in the cold, as is anyone who is looking to break into the industry. Also expect a huge bump in the number of CFA and MBA applicants.

It’s obviously going to make the industry more competitive than ever. Not because of an increase in the amount of workers but an decrease in the amount of jobs available. We now have 20,000ish Lehman employees looking for jobs. No more big shops to run to, only big banks- a la JPM and BOA. People will be a lot more open to moving and working internationally. But let’s look even longer- however long this takes to play out this nation and world will start to grow again and will need firms to do their financing, etc. There are plenty of billionaires/multi-millionaires that made their money on Wall Street and they’ll create firms to service them. Wall Street is simply going on a long vacation…but it will return one day…

+1 Petey crap

PeteyPete Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think anybody looking to get a job in the > industry anytime soon is going to be out in the > cold, as is anyone who is looking to break into > the industry. > > Also expect a huge bump in the number of CFA and > MBA applicants. That and expect a CFA Designation/MBA to obtain a position in the treasury, SEC, Fed, etc. Changes are going to come into play soon and sharp people will be needed to enforce, understand, and administer them.

ditchdigger2CFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > PeteyPete Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I think anybody looking to get a job in the > > industry anytime soon is going to be out in the > > cold, as is anyone who is looking to break into > > the industry. > > > > Also expect a huge bump in the number of CFA > and > > MBA applicants. > > That and expect a CFA Designation/MBA to obtain a > position in the treasury, SEC, Fed, etc. Changes > are going to come into play soon and sharp people > will be needed to enforce, understand, and > administer them. So true- risk, liquidity, reg, etc. will become big factors. Just like accounting boomed after Enron.

I got into this business in 1998 and I saw MER stock go from 100 to 30 in a couple months. The talk at the time was BAC was going to buy MER. Obviously they didn’t but since that time BAC has been looking at MER and waiting to pounce. Anyone at either firm who didn’t think this was a possibility simply didn’t know the history the two firms have had playing a cat and mouse game.

Is anyone really truly surprised that the US financial system tore apart at the seams? I see the people running corportae america exhibiting all the behavioral pitfall covered in L3 and more - arrogance, greed, incompetence. I for one am not surprised at all. THings have an uncanny knack to return to their mean in the long run, and I am afraid this is the mean not the 5th percentile outcome.

anyone looking to get into ibanking better consider boutique firms orr forget it alltogether… competition for buy-side gigs just went up exponentially for the foreseeable future. Number of CFA candidates gonna rise too. Just think about all the money the remaining firms will make in M&A… gonna be staggering.