For those of us still lucky enough to have our jobs, I offer one piece of advice and pose one question to the community. My advice is, “Work every day like it is your last,” and my question is, “What does that mean to you?”
Sounds corny, but it's really been on my mind today. I hope I can keep my job.
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Best of luck to you. Its scary out there...
max out seamlessweb each day. Start stocking up with produce from Metromarket and AJ Sherwood.
Same here mate. Just wondering how long I'll be here.
I wouldn't want to work my ass off if it was my last day, but if I was trying to avoid it being my last day then I would work my ass off. A classic catch-22
Great point RE Banker.
I was going to follow my original post with something like, "I would be the first in the office and the last to leave; I wouldn't check personal email accounts or bank account...I would just work my ass off, every second of every mi..." blah blah.
I have a new attitude about the situation. I feel that I've left it "all on the field" so to speak. I have worked my ass off. I've made mistakes along the way, sure, and maybe I could have worked harder some days, but I'm not going to substantially change anything now. Some people are dressing up nicer and keeping their desks cleaner. I say, "fuck it." I think the decisions have already been made, and it's only a matter of days (possibly as early as this Friday) that the analysts know about the latest round of layoffs. If I get laid off, then so be it. Making substantial changes at this point in the game implies I haven't been giving it my all in the first place. Is this line of thinking spot on or out of whack?
On a related note: do banks really wait until Friday to fire people?
A few analysts were fired today. Every fucking day that passes feels like (I imagine) my first bonus day will feel like. jesus, it's a fucking slaughter out here.
hang in there F9...you are young and you have your entire career in front of you. getting laid off in this environment will in no ways be a strike against you in the future assuming we ever do recover out of this mess.
In the meantime, you can be thinking of a new business to start if you do get fired. I think many bankers are driven and smart enough to be successful entrepreneurs. Maybe this type of environment is exactly what was needed to force some of them (you?) to take a chance...or maybe even travel the world a bit while you're young.
Like many have said before -- better to go through this when you're an analyst with no house and no kids than in 10-15 yrs as an MD with 3 kids and a mortgage to pay.
Good luck, Patrick
...kinda makes you wish there was an investment bankers union doesn't it?
I would love to see that come out of all of this...
Thanks Patrick. I'm still alive for now. I would be less concerned if I had savings to float me for 6-9 months. At my rate, I'll be there right around bonus time, and if I get any bonus (10k-30k), I'll be able to pay off my student loans entirely. At that point, if I get laid off, I will have the ability to survive for a while to make the next move or travel. Until then, losing my job is a huge risk to my ability to survive in the short-run.
Aside from going back to school, what are ex-bankers doing while they weather the downturn? What have you guys heard?
Networking, collecting severance and unemployment....
How does unemployment work? When can you start collecting that?
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