Staying Afloat in a Sea of Sinking Markets: Help for Career Changes During Hard Times

From Wall Street to Main Street – the Ripple Effect

Homeowners who have had to default on subprime mortgages (and Wall Street executives who have had to leave their positions in disgrace hauling away their last millions of loot) are far from the only people being hurt during the current crisis. According to an article in the Sept. 15 edition of Crain’s New York Business.com“:

Before Lehman Brothers went bankrupt and Merrill Lynch was forced to sell itself, the deepening subprime mortgage crisis had prompted estimates of Wall Street job losses to soar from 2,000 to 33,000 during the current downtown.

According to the article, each securities job in New York City “creates two others,” meaning employers from law firms to restaurants and luxury retailers will feel the pinch. And while the impact of the turmoil in financial markets might be biggest on Wall Street and around the Big Apple generally, it’s now becoming obvious that as the credit crisis spreads Main Street companies and employees are also feeling pinched.

Tips For Staying Afloat

Regardless of why your company is in rocky waters, though, there are ways for you to at least keep treading water until markets and employment re-stabilize.

First, take a look at this older post from the Simply Hired Blog, “Career Change: Requires Courage, Persistence and Good Coaching,” for some valuable tips on transferring your transferable skills to a new employer or even a brand-new (to you) industry. While the post has links to services being promoted by Simply Hired, the advice is good whether or not you choose to take them up on their commercial offerings.

If you have the means to upgrade your degree while waiting for an upturn of your fortunes, geteducated.com ranks online degrees from MBAs to Psychology — by price as well as by quality.

How We Can Help

Finally, remember that George’s Employment Blawg is here for you. We have a category with articles on Career and Job Search strategies, as well as our “micro blogs” (see the tabs to your right) to keep you informed. And if you click the “Blogroll” tab above and select “Career and Job Search” (this is really cool), you can read headlines and excerpts (if not entire posts) from over 50 blogs on these topics – without leaving the page!

If there’s anything you’d like to see us cover or update, feel free to drop us a line.

Ever since George discovered that this Blawg’s most popular post of all time is “Tell Me About Yourself:” The 25 Toughest Interview Questions (and tips on how to answer them!),” he has been torn between wanting to offer more useful information to employees and job seekers and a desire to continue the more employer-oriented law and human resource material with which this Blawg originated over five years ago.

Now, George has decided that he can and should continue with this full breath of employment-related coverage, but, realizing that he cannot do it alone, is assembling a team of researchers and writers.

Contribute to This Blawg

George continues to welcome submissions of “guest posts” from other bloggers seeking helpful linkage, authors promoting books, writers seeking exposure, etc. Please use this form to submit your ideas — thank you for helping us serve our readers!

Sphere: Related Content