For Wall Street, You May Need to Park on Small Street

Posted by in Accounting, Auditing & Tax


There's good news on Wall Street; it appears the correction which entered bear territory is coming to an end with maybe a couple more drops to come. Also, it's probably a good assumption that we will not have a double dip recession here in the United States regardless of Europe.

So how does this translate into a job for you? Well if you are looking for a job in the capitalist end of financials, the part that makes money, it's still iffy. In New York City which is the home of America’s financial sector, the city's full of unemployed financial advisors who lost jobs in the massacre of 2008 and 2009 when we probably actually were in a depression which was hidden because unlike 1933, the government has learned a lot about depression management even if not about how to end one.

Look at Japan. Japan was in a 10 year depression of epic proportions during the whole 1990’s where the government actually had programs through the banks where a business could borrow money and be PAID interest. The depression wasn't ended there anymore than here by the government. Businesses sat on their own cash and didn't borrow. Still, the Japanese also didn't starve.

Of course, we reversed a depression into a recession in the U.S. by the government bailouts, though a short deep depression with an economic boom following might have been better than what could be 10 years of high unemployment now. Still, spilled milk can’t be rebottled so how does all this mean jobs for you, the financial job seeker.

One way to improve employment chances in financials is more college, pursuing a Masters for 2 years and hope for better times ahead. This fills up space on a resume since 6 months dead space on a resume's often a death sentence for job hunting. College also lets a person plan as to what's needed to re-direct a life’s course to get that good job. In this case training for government employment or the non-capitalist side of a business such as working in the compliance sector (financial laws which corporations have to follow to do business) may be a good option.

Also, companies are anxious to have air tight contracts as always which means lawyers are still employed. The degree of education for law and its needed skills doesn't make this the option of choice for most though.

Another place to look for work is with small businesses which make up most of America’s employers. Unemployment is lower outside of financials and since a financial degree translates well to employment in marketing or other business related areas, looking for jobs here makes sense.

My brother worked in fast food management in the 80’s. He had a marketing degree so a financial degree is just fine for a job like this to keep body and soul together since being overqualified is becoming a thing of the past. It also keeps you out of the unemployment line since again, 6 months of resume dead space is a job killer.

Looking in on this part of the job world also gives a perspective which may help you later. Being diversified helps in life. Wisdom comes from experience, trite, but true.

Finally, regardless of what you hear there is no economic volcano coming with our government becoming like Greece, so government auditing jobs are still viable, especially as it looks good for elected officials now to have money savers around.

More on this nest week.

By

Jeffrey Ruzicka

Jeffrey Ruzicka is a retired executive of a small company that specializes in industrial water treatment. He lives happily with his wife in Western Pennsylvania and is a contributing writer to FinancialJobBank,FinancialJobBankBlog, ConstructionJobForce, ConstructionJobForceBlog and Nexxt.




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