Graduate Job market - 2009 . Bleak but there is a ray of hope.

Given the dreary economic out look and the sudden freeze and uncertainty in hiring, I wouldn’t be surprised if you sometimes encounter a feeling of helplessness about landing a good job this year.

The class of 2009 could be facing the bleakest job hunt for a generation now the global financial crisis has taken its toll on traditional graduate employment sectors.

With graduate numbers increasing on an almost annual basis, any failure in the job market to reflect this increase will create a greater level of competition in an already crowded market. As a result, an increasing number of people are moving back in with parents after finishing university and failing to find a graduate job

This means that more students would be graduating this year, while the number of jobs in the offing are far below in comparison. This only means that the competetion
Focusing on the financial services industry (and other companies servicing this industry), some of them like northern rock have completely stopped hiring, other companies ML , UBS , PWC , EY etc have kept recruitment numbers pretty flat.
I feel that numbers are kep flat only to prop up their image on campus. They would also damage their brand by not maintaining contacts on campus and disbanding expert recruitment teams, leading to a corporate loss of memory and skills. To reduce numbers is significantly more favourable than suspending recruitment even for one year.

Which sectors would be recruting this year ?
1. Accountants (It is going to be accountants who have to deal with all the financial fall outs and mergers; Lehman's effectively going under and the HBOS and Lloyds merger ,T-mobile and O2 join venture etc)
2. IT (Banks are restructuring and trying to cut costs by improving IT )
3. Start ups ( best way to put your redundancy pay out to good use)

Ways out of this ?
1. Non traditional Routes –Take up additional course in fincance / accounting to supplement your IT / Management background or vice versa. There are clear signs graduates will need to be more savvy than ever in their hunt for work and not rely on the usual high numbers of vacancies available in previous years
2. Graudate Fairs - Talk to the smaller companies , management consultants and start ups- they are bound to give you more attention.
3. Networking – Obviously ! ! !
4. External Recruitment consultants – Keep chasing them until you get a job.

Collaboration and Communication within an organisation.

Fuled by the economic crisis blaming bakers for taking poor and uninformed decisions and current trends like social networking and web 2.0 have brought communication and collaboration within banks into focus.

Banks currently has several communication tools and repositories for storing and exchanging information (Variants of twitter , facbook, forums, Confluence, Sharepoint, etc.) However, the multitude of tools available has created barriers between the various IB business lines, preventing teams from learning and understanding what other teams are currently working on (i.e. new applications, different releases).

A question that most companies are trying to work out is if there are any central tools or ways to collaborate the existing tools in order to centralize the sharing of information and allow all business areas to leverage existing research and applications? Are there activities and/or forums that should be in place to facilitate the sharing of information?

This would ultimately reduce costs , imporved processes and increase collaboration and aid in leveraging the wisdom of the organisation to make informed decisions.

When we first step into an organisation like a bank, we expect that in a place filled with the greatest minds communication and collaboration would have been a problem that would have been addressed with proper governance and policies in plance. The best of the best tools and processes would be in place to help business lines speak with each other to come up with the latest complicated instruments and products at the cheapest price ( which ofcourse they would sell to the public at exhorbitant rates). Well, i find only the latter half to be true.

There are several reasons for this problem. Most banks have grown up from small organisations and until it was quite late nobody recognised the need for set standards and processes for communication. This resulted in creation of siloed business lines each adopting their own "preffered way " of communication. You would almost find glass walls in these organisations which prevent the smooth flow of information. These giants are now finding that they are left with a multitude of applications spread accross the different business line which more or less does one or more of the same subset of functionalities.

Why is this dangerous ? Well for starters - you would find that there are around 3-4 applications per user, None of these can be easily found, there is no common language between applications so the applications are also siloed just as the business line and the most dangerous of all - a communication barrier is formed which becomes part of the company culture.

I was not entirely suprised that these tools came about organically over the years. To understand why this is so, we should think about how banks are organised. Istrongly believe that banks have never been organised as a corporate with a single central management division deciding organisational wide strategies and policies. It has historically been aligned to the business or even trading desks. Each desk wants to make more money and hence their need drives IT to build tools which are the need of the hour. Not much thought was put in to consolidate tools until it was found to be unmanageable.

ADMIS time ...

Congratulations to all who have managed to secure an admit to the ADMIS Masters degree programme at LSE. Considering the bleak outlook of recession, the downgrading of UK’s economy by S&P , and the rise in unemployment figures - I can confidently say that this is a monumental decision you would have to take. To top it all we have the incapable British labour officials (who seem to be just as immoral, greedy and reckless as the bankers) making it extremely difficult for global workers to find employment in this tiny yet still significant Island.
A few of you have e-mailed me a set of concerns regarding taking up an MSc this year and I shall try answering them to the best of my ability. The questions have been around the some variant of the following themes: Required Work experience, MBA or an ADMIS, Average Salary, Job Prospects, Living expenses in London and career Paths post the degree.
First of all – I have one question – why do you want to do this course? Have you really researched this question? It is important to get this bit right as no one can tell you want you really want. This course should be considered as only a means to get you to where you want. And by no means will this course get you very far if you haven’t decided the route you want to take.

Some things you should check up on (in no particular order ) are
1. Are you planning to work in London/ England or do you plan to go back to India
2. How much is this course going to cost me? How can I make this a useful investment?
3. What are my alternatives?
4. How good are you?
Here is my take:
1. Career Prospects : I can perhaps give you an intelligent argument regarding the industry/career prospects in London, but by no means take this as the right answer – it is just my perspective. London is without a doubt one of the most important cities in the world and for the next ten years or so I hope it should still be somewhere on the top. Yes we do have the incapable Presidents and PMs of US and UK trying to increase taxes and drive the entrepreneurs and innovators and the financial think tanks out of their countries – but I am an optimist who believes that they would realise their folly before it is too late and would amend things (Richard Branson did give Brown a piece of his mind).
That aside –lets understand the current industry landscape in England. Once the heart of industrial revolution , today then manufacturing sector in the UK is pitiful and what is left is being bought out by Indian companies. But with regards to trade and investments – London is still the financial and trading capital of the world.
Once you pass out of LSE , you are most likely to land up with an Investment Bank or a Consultancy. The number of retail and mnf industries who hire out of LSE are few. We do have Aldi, P&G, Unilever , Johnson and Johnson and a few others recruiting a small minority of the students – but the numbers are truly insignificant. Many IT companies including several Indian IT companies have started targeting ADMIS candidates – but then visa is a huge issue and with the INDIAN passport having a No Entry sign to almost every country in the world things don’t look too good.
Guess the question you have to ask yourself are – the choices are limited – mainly consultancies (Deloitte, KPMG, EY ,PWC) and IBank (DB, GS, JP, Standard, HSBC, Barclays) . You would most surely get into their IT , Ops, Middle Office ,Risk and Legal or BackOffices.
Trading Floor – Difficult but yes it is a possibility – they don’t look for degrees – they look for smart asses.

If you plan to work in India- you would know better of the state of affairs there. Congress is back in power – SENSEX is going up – Does that spell green shoots of recovery –I don’t know – but I wouldn’t mind betting some money on it.

Costs vs Benefits
Fish ... this is an expensive course. 18,000 + throw in another 6000 for living making a grand sum of 24-25000 pounds. Ooops did I say pounds... Yes that is now becoming more of a joke currency. When I came to UK – the GBP touched 85. And today its fluttering around 70s (a huge 12 % discount without even asking for it. Plus with the bleeding recession – everything seems to be on sale – clothes for 2-3 quid to cheap food. The INR is expected to go up by 8% by the end of the year ( And i have a some money bet on this). Which means – pay you fee in two parts – don’t take the whole loan now. Take it in two or 3 parts. (Secret – you have till the end of the year to pay your fee – they will keep annoying you to pay for it but yea what the heck ) . Try and translate that into saving in INR – it is sizeable – about 4 lack worth of savings already.

LSE is a meeting ground for people and leaders from all over the world. And LSE is in the heart of London. The exposure you can get here is tremendous and LSE gives you a whole lots of leverage that you wouldn’t even get out of Cambridge or Oxford – only because of its location. In the past year here are a few people I have got to meet – Coffee with Gopalakrishnan (Tata Sons), dinner with James the CFO of Barrings Bank, cricket with Andrew Monroe – the youngest partner of KPMG, nets with Anshu head of Global Markets DB, Business Managers from Google, 3i investors, founders of WAYN, skype , linkedin, AIM,Skype a lot of budding entrepreneurs .... and the list is endless. This in itself is worth a lot more than money.
In my opinion, if you do want to do an MSc –this is a good time – the £ is weak, and there are hints of recovery of the economy (we are all just waiting for the politicians to stop screwing up)

The job scene in London.
As discussed – you are mostly going to apply to IBanks or consultancies. Things have been a bit slow. I was working with Lehman , lost my job last September and now working in Deutsche Bank. A lot of my friends in Lehman find themselves placed in many other banks or consultancies. It took 2-6 months for folks to find their second (or first job). There are a lot of them who are still looking or going back to their respective countries and trying their luck elsewhere. Agreeable , that things are looking better now and companies are recruiting, DB just took in 32 inters, and I heard the same with Barclays. The work of the economic shakedown is over. Those left standing are the winners and we can be quite optimistic that they would be able to tide over the recession.
A lot of people have lost their jobs in the last 6months (over 50,000 in Canary Wharf alone) So the competition is going to be very high. If you do want to get a job , previous work experience would be a great benefit. Confidence in your abilities, demonstration of your ability to work in challenging situation and good luck are of course a pre-requisite.
Avg starting salaries vary – a rough guide for graduates would be –
24-30 k at a consultancy , 30-45 k at IBanks.
Is that good enough to survive the high costs of London – yes and no. Depends on your lifestyle ;) But you will be able to find a way out. More is never enough... i find that London has a way of always keeping my bank balance in check... I have never been able to save anything here.... 

MBA vs ADMIS
The obvious questions is what do you plan to do after the course? MBA helps you start at an associate level –you cant expect to do that with and MSc. MBA opens our a lot more doors than a Masters degree – but then again it depends. An MBA from LSB, Harvard, or some of the other top BSchools open out a lot more doors than the MSc from LSE. But if you do plan to get an MBA from a 2 tier B School – perhaps it is not worth it.
Think of your degree as a currency. LSE is a high value currency in comparison to Aston or Machester or Warwick or Univ of Texas or NYU.
The roles you can get into with an MBA is more diverse than those with an MSc. But to get into a good BSchool you need 5-6 years of work ex.

do we have to measure things

No, seriously. Do we HAVE to measure things?
Sounds a rhetorical question. The obvious answer seems to be yes.
I remember a very small incident that happened a long long time ago. It was a small incident, but left a lasting memory. This incident has defined my personality. I live by this rule, though funnily it has landed me into more trouble than good especially in London.

Well, enough of the fluff and sentiments ... let me take you back 15 years to when I was a young boy of 10. It was balmy afternoon and I was walking with this uncle of mine on the way to get some lunch for everyone at home. On the way a very old man who was sitting on the footpath looked up to us expectantly and asked my uncle if he could spare some change. My uncle put his hand into his pocket, and drew out a note, did not even look at what it was and just handed it over to the beggar.

The beggar to his surprise found that it was Rs.100 note and informed us that he did not have any change to give us. My uncle asked him to keep the money and walked off. The beggar thanked profusely and wished us all the good in the world.

This incident left me with a lot of questions and I felt strangely nice but a bit confused at the same time as I had not seen this attitude ever before. I asked my uncle why he did something like that and he replied - "Do not measure when you give"

That has been an attitude I have always tried living up to. But more often than none, I have only ended up shattered and bruised when people have taken me for granted. Even so, I don’t want to change. I strongly believe that the right thing is to “not measure when you give".

I know my parents completely disagree with this point of view - They have always warned me that when you help people, the only thing you get is more expectations that what you can live up to. More often than none - this leads to utter disappointment and broken relationships.

Today, I am caught in between these two thoughts. Not sure, if I would ever find my equilibrium, not sure if I will ever change and be a little more thoughtful before I act. Guess, it might just boil down to "Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, And don't put up with people that are reckless with yours" . Bah,my sister is a psychologist, got free help at hand ...