Specialists suffer in job market

Contrary to reassurances offered by outplacement consultants, joblessness still carries a stigma in many people's eyes. Jonathan Baines, chairman of the financial services group at the headhunter Whitehead Mann, says: "Banks do not wish to hire people who are not fully employed. Even in this climate, where a lot of good people have been cut, there is a feeling that if he's not good enough for them, then he's not good enough for us."

Big differences between roles mean that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) experts will never be able to transfer to a very different area such as credit derivatives, one of the few that is currently booming at the moment. But a career diversion into a more compatible area, such as private banking, remains a possibility for some.

JP Morgan is one bank that has gone out of its way to foster internal staff mobility. In the UK, large employers are required to spend 30 days looking for alternative positions within their organisation before making someone redundant. Most banks fulfil this obligation simply by directing people to lists of current vacancies. But at JP Morgan, people who are "at risk" are directed to the bank's careers centre.

Any employee can use the centre to arrange an internal transfer, and nowadays its main role is helping employees made redundant.

Angela Sabini, a manager at the centre, says: "You can sit someone down and say, 'Here are all the vacancies, go and find another job,' or you can give someone an extra push to help them get a new position. We want to ensure our recruiters give priority to the people at risk."

The centre has successfully converted corporate financiers into private bankers and HR staff into operations staff.

In other cases, skills can be less transferable. M&A experts find it hard to move to private equity, for example. Guy Townsend of Walker Hamill, a search firm, says most hiring by private equity firms is done at entry-level. Someone who has spent the past 10 years working in investment banking is both too experienced and too one-dimensional.

Even a top MBA will do little to enhance the appeal of a 35-year-old banker without wider experience of the world, Townsend says.

The best placed M&A bankers are generalists with something special to offer and a lot of origination experience. Ian Jones, a headhunter at Sheffield Haworth, says: "Investment banking survivors tend to be the people who are a bit extraordinary. You have an advantage if you're a different nationality, you speak another language, or if you have previous experience working in a different area."

Jones says bankers who only have execution skills are in the worst position. "If you can't originate you will be out on your ear."

Sales people are also best placed in other areas. David Reynolds at the search firm Sheffield Haworth who recruits in credit derivatives says equity derivatives or fixed income derivatives salespeople can move into credit derivatives. "Equity or fixed income derivatives traders are less transferable, as they tend to be more specialised," says Reynolds.

The shift to a multi-product approach means debt and equity sales people are becoming more flexible. Andrew Pullman, head of HR for equities and financial markets at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein says: "Since we've combined equities, fixed income and debt in one division, there are far more opportunities for people to move."

Specialisation may be desirable during the good times, but when the job market collapses it can leave an employee high and dry.