Oh, what to do after you help run the country’s economy into the ground? Why you move on over to advertising business and Madison Avenue, of course. Acording to an article in Advertising Age a number of financial executives are shipping their resumes over to the ad agencies in hopes of securing jobs in that industry.
With unemployment in New York at a new high, guess why?, Wall Street executives are hoping to work in the technology, research, and finance oriented positions. The economic downturn is expected to result in the loss of some 165,000 jobs in the Big Apple. About 20% of them will be the recently refugees from the financial industries.
While some argue that many of the finance people wouldn’t qualify on Wall Street, I can see where some of it makes sense. Advertising can be creative, and few things have been more creative than some of the financial maneuvering, risk-mortgages and other factors that made this world a…different place. Although I can just see during their pre-employment screening review, “what did you do? I helped run the American economy into the ground.”
And then there may be some with criminal records. Now now, necessarily, but in the future, after the way understaffed FBI gets through with investigating all the financial chicanery from criminal activity. And then of course there are the civil records, where attorneys hired by former brokerage clients sue their brokers for possible stock and securities fraud. That won’t look too good on the resume.
Let’s face it, as with anything there are honest financial people, and then there are the rest. There are people who were ethical and diligent, and then there were the rest. You can guess which group requires the largest number of busses to remove them from the Street.
But let’s face this, while many people are at fault for the economic debacle, including ourselves, there are more than a few who received a license to steal and went on a stealing spree. They knew better, but the money was just too enticing and everyone was doing it, and the government from all sides and political persuasions gave them its blessing. So they did what they did. They are what they are, after all.
And many of these guys are bottom feeders. And as such, bottom feeders learn how to survive. They have survived terrorists attacks on their spiritual ground, and they will survive the economic meltdown. Some will pump gas, others will retire, and some will move over to Madison Avenue. Mad Men. How nice. So I guess the final question is whether there is such a thing as sub-prime advertisers? We shall see.
Check them out before you hire.
