eFinancialCareers

Deutsche Bank said it hired Paul Stefanick, the chairman of Merrill Lynch's global mergers and acquisitions group, to head its global industrials group. Stefanick will join Deutsche Bank in New York in January 2009 and report to Jacques Brand, co-head of global industry coverage. In his 20 years at Merrill, Stefanick advised on divestitures, recapitalizations and other transactions in the industrials and technology sectors globally. He is a graduate of the... Read more

Investment banks will concentrate depleted 2008 bonus pools among a thin layer of top producers whose total compensation exceeded $5 million in recent years, recruiters say. Even those stars are likely to receive less than half the bonus they got last year. And bankers whose production falls in the middle of the pack should expect no bonus at all. That's not even the worst of the news. I-bankers have learned to... 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 worldwide financial crisis is set to take a major toll on the business of large U.S. executive search firms, according to analysts who follow the sector. In the latest reported quarter, the financial services sector accounted for about 19 percent of revenue for Korn/Ferry International Inc. and 27 percent of revenue for Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., Reuters reports. Korn/Ferry and Heidrick are publicly traded, unlike most U.S.-based search firms... Read more

Hedge funds continue prospecting for portfolio managers and analysts, even in the face of weakening returns, diminished access to credit and the threat of investor withdrawals and prime broker failures. However, financial turmoil is forcing many smaller hedge fund firms to cut back, and is slowing the hiring process even for large fund companies that view the crisis as an opportunity to recruit top talent that wasn't available before. Nevertheless, hedge... Read more

Barclays is adding 1,500 information technology jobs in Singapore, while cutting some 2,000 IT slots in the UK, according to a published report citing the chief executive of its retail and commercial bank. The executive, Frits Seegers, reportedly said Singapore was chosen to be "the technology heart for Barclays." The bank also has Asian technology centers in Shanghai and in Pune, India. The new Singapore center, which is dedicated to Barclays'... 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

Jessi Walter loved her job as vice president of credit strategy at Bear Stearns. The work was interesting, she enjoyed her colleagues, and she was well compensated. But she also loved cooking with her boyfriend's two young nieces. In June, when Walter, 27, found herself one of the 10,000 people laid off after Bear Stearns was acquired by JPMorganChase, she didn't panic. She started a business. Cupcake Kids!, which provides cooking events... Read more