eFinancialCareers

I am getting very rusty. Four months of not having to think very hard has left me mentally blunted. This became very obvious in an interview the other day. I was being quizzed on my structured credit knowledge, and facts and figures that three months ago I could recite in my sleep seemed to have seeped out of my brain. I was like a tired old boxer unable... Read more

The summer holidays are drifting towards a close, with two weeks left of August before the beaches of Southern Europe empty and bankers and investors return to their desks. Their mood could determine the longevity of the credit crunch. For those of us forced to watch from the sidelines this summer, the direction the market takes over the last four months of the year could be vital for careers in... Read more

For anyone out there who considers this column a purveyor of doom and gloom, the time has come to point out there are also a lot of upsides to being out of the market. Take the personal benefits: I can now get up at a civilised hour, live life at my own pace, come and go as I please, and shave twice a month. Redundancy can also have huge professional... Read more

The week away has done me some good. I feel refreshed, relaxed and even a little bit tanned after spending some time away from London. A blissful state one might think. However, a quick glance at the calendar this morning shattered my feeling of goodwill. Next week is August and I have been out of work since April. What the hell have I been doing? This is genuine panic. As... Read more

I have decided I need to get away from it all, to see a new horizon and get a fresh angle on things. It sounds ridiculous I know, I haven’t entered an office for over three months, but I am beginning to feel boxed in. It has got to the point where I have investigated so many avenues in search of a new job that things have begun to blur... Read more

I have taken my foot off the gas. Those of you who are more aggressively job hunting would tut at my lax attitude of the last few weeks. A couple of days at Wimbledon, one day of cricket at the Oval, and several days spent lying in the park with my wife and baby daughter all point to a worrying slowing in pace. I woke this morning to an ash... Read more

It's funny how not working changes your relationships with people. Despite the fact that I am financially sound, at least for the medium term, reactions of even close friends seem to have subtly altered. I’m not sure if it's the way I'm acting or whether I’m simply becoming sensitive as part of some post-redundancy rejection complex, but there definitely seems to be a difference. Take yesterday, for example. I played 18... Read more

3:30pm Friday afternoon I got my first 'Dear John' call; apparently I haven’t got the skill set they’re looking for at this time. Normally this wouldn’t have been a reason for concern, but with an ever-shrinking pool of roles out there, elimination felt a little like Posh Spice being informed she can’t sing (or dance). The sad fact is that having got my CV out there with headhunters, some of... Read more

A series of meetings this week made it startlingly clear that a good recruitment consultant can be worth his weight in gold, and a bad one can lead to abject depression. Last week, I met four of them, two of whom offered genuine support and two of whom who were clearly continuing to play in the band as the good ship credit started to slip beneath the waves. Let’s focus... Read more

You would have thought that these would be bleak times indeed. However, as I sit here on my roof terrace, with the lush green gardens stretched out below me and the sun sparkling in a cloudless sky, it is hard to wipe the smile off my face. Yes I need to get back into the world of work and reinvigorate a career dampened by the upheaval that is going on... Read more

Is it me or is this credit crisis getting worse? A year on from the first glimpse of trouble and the bad news seems to be accelerating rather than calming down. Each week seems to bring a heightened level of nervousness and more tales of woe. I spent Saturday playing cricket with a group of friends who make their livings in the commercial property sector; their mood was if anything... Read more

Despite my trepidation about networking, I’ve now begun the schmoozing process in earnest. The campaign is being coordinated from my new base in the City – Transition HQ, to which I have access for the next month. Having got used to ‘working’ from home in the West of London, I confess I nearly turned my nose up at having access to a City office laid on by transition consultants. But... Read more

I have been reliably informed this week that networking is the key to life, the universe and everything. My transition guru offered me this eye-opening revelation. It seems that headhunters and recruitment consultants may offer a comfort blanket to those of us who have recently been handed our freedom, but when all is said and done it’s our own contacts that are more likely to hold the key to our... Read more