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Monday marked the first day of my return to the working class. More than a year after I left my previous position, I had finally secured and accepted an offer to return to the financial services industry. From my previous sales-trading jobs with a broker in New York, I will soon be making the transition to a research position with a local investment bank in one of Southeast Asia’s smaller markets.
To be frank, debating with myself over whether to accept this offer was just as hard as landing the offer itself. On one hand, taking the job means a sizeable (70 per cent!) pay cut and it is also a more junior position than my previous one. As a consolation, the lower tax rate and cost of living in my new country does soften up the blow significantly.
My career on the trading desk is also coming to an end, and I am starting out as a freshie in a different role. This was one of the biggest obstacles in my mind. While my peers who were lucky enough to avoid the layoffs are moving on to senior roles and bigger responsibilities, I am taking a step back and restarting the game.
But I suppose this was not really an issue at all – another half-year out of the market and I might as well have been a fresh graduate with zero prior market experience.
Despite all the minuses of this position, my craving for some career stability was simply too strong to ignore. Accepting this offer means the end of an exhausting job search around the region. I’ve finished with flying for hours and staying in budget hotel rooms on my own expense (whatever happened to companies paying for candidate’s travel?) only to end up with fruitless interviews and the chance to repeat the process every fortnight.
Before the turbulence of the past year, the freedom and financial capacity to plan for classes and vacations with a degree of certainty never seemed like a luxury. And the paycheck! How great will it be to not have to dig into my reserves every month to pay off my business school loan anymore?
An additional factor that I had to consider for this offer is that I cannot make my new job simply a temporary shelter for the next year or so until the market gets better. Given that I was out of the market for a year, and this is a new job function for me, I need to stay for a minimum duration of two or three years. Risking more short-term damage to my resume is the last thing I want to do now.
Not an easy decision at all. It took me a week to finally convince myself to take it. Ultimately the single most important reason I accepted the offer was because this gives me a fighting chance to stay in the same industry that I had grown to like over the years and still would like to make a long-term career of.
To me, the only thing worse than restarting at a junior position in a different function, is restarting at a junior position in a different industry.
I accepted my current position with a hair cut after being unemployed for several months. Ideally, I would want to stay for several years. But once on the job, it’s not easy as the employer does not reduce the expectations/workloads etc even though the compensation is drastically reduced! With settling into a new environment with new systems, process etc it can get very stressful and frustrating.
Good luck!
Guess I have the same fate as you folks. i have also suffered a 40 pay cut when accepting my current job position after being unemployed for 6 months..
totally agree with this sentence: ” Risking more short-term damage to my resume is the last thing I want to do now”
Good luck to all and may the future be bright for all of us..Cheers!
I don’t get the point of this article…are you complaining or what? Yes, the financial crisis has derailed a lot of career plans. Adapt. Suck it up and move on.
Me too. Just secured and accepted an job offer in financial sector. 40% pay cut.
I am happy that I can finally finish my job-seeking and start a normal life again.
You aren’t the only one who took a huge pay cut to stay employed.
you are luckier than me. I still in the job search process after the redundancy in the financial crisis.
Wish me have luck soon
Also the time when you are staying unemployed, really hurting your morale, and giving you plenty of time to think of things that are close to the end of the world or may destroy yourself. Good to hear that you take the job.
Count yourself lucky. Many still scouting with 40-50% if not much lesser just to keep family and sanity. I found mine with hefty 55% cut, only to know it’s a short 1 year contract.
You have to be realistic.
When start with zero experience in a new position, like from sales to research, you are a Nobo. So you cannot expect to get back the same pay. Just wake up in this real world.
Beautifully sums up the experience thats some of us high fliers had to go through or are still going through because of someone screwing up his basics in some vey distant part of the world.
I took a job at 20% of what I used to get in another industry just to pay for my expenses, was lucky to get upto 70% in 3 months in yet another industry andwaiting to get back to my industry when Big Bonuses get doled out to the same set of people who botched it up previously, WHOA.
Thanks for sharing your experience. One who can survive is one who can be flexible and adapt to the changing environment. Not those who are still complaining, picking n choosing in such harsh conditions. It is no surprise they arent getting a job still.
No matter what your new pay may be, it is better than no pay at all. No matter what role you are in, its better to be rotting at home because one is picky. Good luck to your new career.
Indeed, to have a job is better than not having. At least, you may start to see positive inflow to your bank account.
I too took a pay cut, to a bigger role in a much smaller firm. Told myself I am working on a management position.
Good luck to all of us!
The long and arduous road to put one’s career back into track….takes a helluva energy n resilience. There’s no other choice I suppose.
I am still looking for a job though I have offered myself to get 60-70% and all junior stuffs. They feel that I may not stay with them for long. Don’t know how to convince them and settle me in a job. It is daunting..! can anyone help?
a close friend of mine returned from 13 years on Wall Street and also took a significant pay cut in Singapore. From US$3M to S$500K!!! I really feel sorry for her…NOT!!!
Likewise I have been unemployed for almost a year and unlike you cannot relocate due to family obligations. A pay comparison with the previous job is not a basis at all – bec think of it – most bankers and traders earn more than the President of USA and the majority of humankind. It was just too good to begin with and a big reality dose is hard to swallow but its still sweet.
I definitely sympathize with you. Having to see your peers move on to more senior positions while moving down to something junior is perhaps worse than just being junior in the position and function you love.
Of course those still jobless are in a worse state and there are those in even worse state than those who are jobless here.
Look at it this way. A lot of you chaps have been overpaid for a long time. You’re now paid what you’re worth. You’ve just been ‘rightpaid’.
I accepted a job with a big huge pay cut close to 40% & lower ranking after unemployed more than 6 months. In addition I was not able to get the position that I wanted as a Teasury Sales specialist . The only plus point I am still within banking industry & with a positive profit bank FYE 2008.
Good luck & cheers
You are in a much better position than me. I took a paycut from my previous job where I was recently promoted to head position to move into equity research – something I wanted to try. The sector of coverage is new and I am starting like a freshie.The hours are 12-15 hours a day. Each day I asked myself if I made a right decision……
i switched to totally different industry after being like 1/1/2 yrs unemployed, luckly i am still young and my career is very ery stable now,. stability really very impt for me i realised.
Maybe i trade on e sidelines
We’re gonna turn this into a support thread. :)
Same here. Made redundant, checked around and reduced expectations quickly. Took 40% cut to stay in the market so out for less than 1Q.
Better to hang around even if comp. is lowered. Before you know it, good times will come rolling around again and the banks will be tripping over themselves to find experienced and relevant candidates with offers of up to 50-100% increments (been there, done it).
Good luck to all. Stay cheerful!
At least there’s something new! To me, the worst thing will be starting in the same function, and same industry, with a pay cut. So moving on to something new (new regional market, new job function, new tax rate !!) is what you can celebrate for! And who knows what this will lead to, maybe there’re other opportunities and benefits in the future. Good luck to everyone, including me!
I think a lot of people in the financial sector need to takeserious look at the work they do and ask themselves : SERIOUSLY was the work I was doing worth what they were payig me?
I think I’m lucky. After 10 months of search, I’ve managed to land on a role in a similar industry which offered a higher package than the firm that laid me off. However, required me to relocate from Shanghai to Hong Kong at my own cost, which is acceptable considering current market conditions. God bless & good luck to anyone who were affected by the crisis.
congrats everyone here who got employed recently. I’m also one of those who was employed recently but took a paycut (though not as much as the author) after 4 months in transition.
the question is, will the author accept a role (with his network of headhunters, industry friends) similiar to sales-trading with equal or more salary than his current role?
You are not alone my friend! Good Luck!
Its tough when you are made redundant, you used to be somebody and then your a nobody – as the days become weeks and the weeks become months you start to lose your confidence and the pressure increases – if your lucky and persistent an offer will come but no doubt it will be a lesser role than you expected.
But accepted it with a huge smile and get your head down, as the option of long term unemployment is no option at all.