Quiting before finding a new job?

yes very stupid unless you have a REAAAAALLLLLLYYYYYYY convincing reason to do so

Not really. All depends on your personal circumstances.

why do you want to quit? which group are you in currently?

Unless your resume, undergrad instition, work experience are really, really strong than I would advise against it.

You can bail and quickly realize your options are worse than what you have now.

Just be careful with you decision.

Best of luck.

I don't know how much a milkman would know about the conditions in the financial services job market

stick to semi-skimmed

prob easier to get away with; just say you got laid off. accordingly, harder to get a job in this market as well. i mean at the end of the day, let's be real, nothing is ever resume suicide if you're smart enough or savvy enough to get around it. but yeah, if you can avoid quitting, i def would; it's certainly the safer option.

Can you give us more background? Based on your limited info, I'd say it's a dumb idea and to avoid it all costs. The next firm you interview with is going to be that much more likely to call your old firm for references if you're not currently employed.

From their perspective, they're looking at 1 of 2 candidates. Candidate 1 is a strong and desirable analyst looking for other opportunities. Candidate 2 is unemployed and pretty sketch ("well he says he quit, but why would he? I think he got sacked" - what they're thinking to themselves) They'll be much more inclined to hire candidate 1.

Kind of like selling your home before arranging to move into another place?

i think it's a bad move to quit without another job lined up for every reason you mentioned, ESPECIALLY because of the economy and current job market. you need to figure out how to run your life without sacrificing your job...it might be tough, but this is simply not the time to be without a job (unless you're a trust fund baby and you REALLY don't need the money or the security)

More like buying another house before you sell your first, with a nice 3-yr ARM set to adjust in 2 months. Just looking to screw yourself down the road.

If you do end up quitting, maybe try starting up some sort of business - then at least you can say that you were doing something entrepreneurial as opposed to sitting around with your thumb up your butt.

Let me just say this: in the current market it is close to IMPOSSIBLE to find another finance job after you've been laid off/have quit. This is in fact (one of) the reasons I will not be following this path, the market is just too crappy these days.

I've seen lots and lots of friends get laid off and so far hardly anyone has actually landed another finance job... most of them are just traveling and/or moving to "industry" (in the Leveraged Sellout way).

More than resume suicide, I think you're probably underestimating just how difficult it is to find something else in the current market.

If you do want to do this because your current situation is simply unbearable, here's what I would suggest doing:

1) Consider moving to industry/other normal companies or going back to school (realize there will be a delay of course) rather than trying to get back into finance.

2) If you don't want to do that, I think 2StopShop offers a great suggestion - start your own business, even if it's not the next Google you will be able to list it on your resume, speak to it, and sound like you're doing something useful. This is actually close to what I'm doing, though I am planning for the long-term and will be in it for quite awhile rather than just using it as a stop-gap measure.

In short, quitting before you have something else lined up will almost certainly prevent you from getting another finance job in the near-term. But in the long-term, you can come back and it's not "resume suicide" as long as you were doing something/can sound like you were doing something after you've quit.

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