Go With The Flow

I assume that as a financial analyst, you can’t escape reading the daily news. I can’t imagine a financial analyst who isn’t up to date on the latest Bloomberg headline. In this past year, the problems in the financial industry have inundated the news front. Being exposed to negative news day in and day out can certainly undermine most people’s confidence and feeling of job security.

Now that I’m no longer in the financial industry, I have the option to just skim the headlines or simply delete any brokerage report that bears depressing news. If you’re still in the financial industry or someone who is looking to break into the field, how would you handle this wave of economic downturn, the layoffs and corporate restructuring?

To some degree, there is a sense of helplessness. There is little control if the management of a financial corporation decides to freeze hiring, downsize or worse, the company collapses. However, I believe everyone has control on how to respond to the changes characteristic of this volatile industry.

When you can accept the fact that the financial industry is volatile and fluctuates mostly in tandem with the economic trend, you’ll be able to go with the flow. By default, financial analysts have diverse talents, as it takes a comprehensive range of skills to successfully break into the financial industry.

In the worst case scenario, even if someone got laid off and has to make an involuntary change of career direction, there are plenty of possibilities to work with. Three valuable assets to have are:
• Flexibility
• Adaptability
• Creativity

Have you noticed that there are many similarities and transferable skills between the work of a and a recruiter? A stock broker can comfortably, with some new industry knowledge, become a salesperson in another industry. With the financial background and training, financial analysts can also transition to become an entrepreneur.

For myself, speaking with hindsight, my layoff was the best thing that ever happened to me. It was tough accepting it at the beginning. Now, I see that it has opened up many new opportunities that were not previously obvious to me.

Know that whatever direction you’ll be taking, you’ll be meeting people or learning a skill that could be critical to your success down the road. These are probably opportunities that you would not have considered had your career plans all worked out smoothly as you had expected.

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