eFinancialCareers

Battered by its exposure to the U.S. real estate market and attempting to rebuild its securities business, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce got a $1.05 billion (Canadian) investment from the U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. The investment will be in CIBC's U.S. residential real estate portfolio, which as of June 30 had a fair market value of $1.18 billion, according to the Toronto-based bank. Cerberus' investment will be... Read more

The U.S. job toll from Barclays' acquisition of Lehman Brothers' North American business is pegged at 3,000 heads, or a little more than 20 percent of the two institutions' combined work force in the Americas. "Any reduction is coming from both sides, not just from Lehman," an unnamed source close to Barclays told Reuters. The source said Lehman employees in mergers and acquisitions, equities research and cash equities trading may escape... Read more

As passage of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program failed to calm markets, the Treasury appointed Assistant Secretary Neel Kashkari, a former Goldman Sachs banker who joined the department in 2006, to temporarily lead the office overseeing the program. *** Congress enacted and President Bush signed legislation that will let the government spend up to $700 billion to buy banks' distressed bonds and loans. The law establishing the Troubled Asset Relief... Read more

While firms in the Boston area are proving resilient in the face of market turmoil, unfortunately for job seekers, they're not entirely immune. The future of the Merrill Lynch operations in the area is uncertain once the firm is acquired by Bank of America. State Street Corp. is under pressure, as indicated by a plummeting share price. And Fidelity Investments says parents are saving less money for college because of the... Read more

Yes, the incarnation of Wall Street that people have known since the 1980s no longer exists. Thousands of jobs are in danger, even after Congress extended a $700 billion lifeline to the industry. At the same time, some companies see chaos as an opportunity to add people they might not have been able to get otherwise. Whatever happens in coming months, job applicants will face challenges standing out from the crowd.... Read more

Citadel Investments said it hired Timothy Bryan Wilkinson, John Alexander Goodridge and Alex Maddox, moves that will expand the firm’s capabilities in global fixed income. All three join the Chicago hedge fund from Lehman Brothers. Wilkinson served as head of fixed income proprietary trading at Lehman and will join Citadel’s proprietary trading group along with John Alexander Goodridge, also from Lehman. Alex Maddox was named Citadel’s head of securitized products... Read more

Making its first move under the bailout law enacted on Oct. 3, the Treasury Department named Neel Kashkari as Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability, overseeing the new Office of Financial Stability that will manage the Troubled Asset Relief Program. That's the formal name for the new $700 billion fund that will buy distressed bonds, derivatives and mortgage loans from U.S. banks. Kashkari will also retain his current title of Assistant... Read more

While risk managers may have gained influence and job security compared with other corporate departments, their compensation prospects for the current and coming year are hardly rosy. Insiders and executive recruiters report expectations are low for bonuses for mid- to senior-level professionals in all areas of risk management, including operations, credit and market risk. What's more, new hires aren't garnering the same robust packages they might have a year ago. "To... Read more

Buoyed by the strong Canadian dollar, Canadian banks are on the hunt for acquisitions in the U.S. Royal Bank of Canada, the country's largest bank, reportedly held acquisition talks with Lehman Brothers Holdings a few months before Lehman sought bankruptcy protection. In April, shares of Bank of Nova Scotia tumbled after The Wall Street Journal reported it was considering a bid for Cleveland-based National City. Earlier this year, TD Ameritrade... Read more

The size and shape of the financial sector rests in the hands of the U.S. government, although a majority of both lawmakers and voters might prove incapable of accepting that simple fact. If you work for a commercial bank or an investment bank, get ready for life under a new corporate roof if your employer hasn't changed hands already. *** Efforts to design a financial-sector rescue package capable of winning Congressional approval... Read more

People throughout the financial industry are nervous right now. Whether your firm's under pressure or not, it's always smart to have your resume up-to-date, to be in touch with your network, and to be ready to launch a job search should the need - or the opportunity - arise. To help, we've compiled some of our favorite articles on networking, organizing your job search, resumes, cover letters, and interviewing. Networking Networking... Read more

Other than the rise of the behavioral interview, the components of the job interview really haven't changed much over the past decade. Still, approximately 10 percent of my interviews included "outlier" interview techniques. Here are a couple of outlier scenarios I have experienced: The Bad Cop The apparent goal of this technique is to see how you respond under pressure. Its most common applications are to interrupt the candidate mid-sentence to... Read more