There are now literally thousands of unemployed bankers in London. Some, but not all – or probably not even most – will find jobs in banking. What else can the others do?

If politicians and central bankers are to be believed, the UK economy isn’t going to come out of this quickly. So, while some unemployed ‘star’ bankers may well be snapped up by other firms ‘upgrading’ their staff, many will not find employment in banking in the near future. Those who do may find that banking is not as financially rewarding as it was in the past.

It’s true that there are few jobs as lucrative as banking has been, but there are jobs out there that unemployed bankers can do – and do well – if they think laterally and creatively about it.

So how can you acquire one?

It won’t be easy, and initially you’ll have to take a pay cut. I’d start with thinking about what your transferable skill set is – what did you study at university? What specialty did you have in your job? What did you like doing/were you good at doing in your job?

What degree did you study at university? Many derivative specialists are referred to as ‘rocket scientists’ because they studied physics or engineering or something else incredibly technical or quantitative. There are lots of companies crying out for qualified people like this. The government is bemoaning the lack of science and engineering skills in the UK. Quite often, technical geeks don’t have great interpersonal skills or business skills – so if you are a more complete package, while you may start off junior in a corporate job, you are likely to progress faster than your peers.

What was your specialty in your banking job? Did you cover commodities? How about working for a commodity producer? Or being a commodity buyer for another industrial company? Were you in corporate finance covering medical companies? How about looking at a job with them? Or a medical devices company? Or focusing on healthcare issues for an insurance company?

What did you like doing? What were you good at? Were you in debt capital markets covering borrowers? So you liked building relationships with your clients – how about trying to be a relationship manager in another area? Were you in corporate finance? Then you were a project manager bringing together the various areas of your firm. Did you like preparing proposals? How about writing some freelance articles on the industry?

I don’t want to suggest that any of this is going to be easy. It isn’t. Retooling yourself requires lots of thought, soul searching and financial strain. However, if you were mediocre – or even good – in your job and are now in a contracting industry, it may be time for you to rethink your career choices and expectations.

Anneke de Boer is a former managing director of Morgan Stanley’s fixed income and debt capital markets business in London. She retired in 2006.