GUEST COMMENT: How I suggest you reinvent yourself as a wealthy and independent contractor

If you're reading this, you will probably be bright, hard-working and creative. If you are a regular visitor to this site, you are might also be a job-seeker who is less than enamored with your present situation - whether in salaried service or between employers.

Working for a large, international bank or other financial services company certainly has its advantages. Otherwise they wouldn't be so difficult to join in the present environment. But if you are bright, hard-working and creative, have you considered whether you are being selfish enough with your talents?

Remember that most global financial services organisations are pyramid-shaped.

The rewards at the top can be awesome and some degree of esteem, or even self-actualisation (for fans of Maslow's hierarachy) must surely follow.

But, as they say, it is lonely at the top. And getting there requires cynical political talents that young and naïve junior bankers may b e lacking.

So what happens to the thousands of clever professionals for whom the pinnacle of banking proves unattainable?

Traders can join hedge funds. Technologists can become independent contractors. Pete, a friend of mine (and granted - a pretty small sample size), gave up a full-time IT job with a British bank two decades ago and - at billing rates of 500-1.5k a day - hasn't looked back.

Exit options, even for structurers

But what of some of the other professions in our business? What about mid-level investment bankers, product structurers and others who do often do not possess a trading book or "own" a client list at a bank?

Let's focus on structured credit, as one of the harder-hit areas through the crisis. I have a network of structured credit contacts (structured credit having been my own self-inflicted curse career choice). After having seen my contact list decimated by this interminable credit crisis, many former contacts have begun to emerge as founders of independent advisory boutiques.

The better-connected individuals who left on good terms with their former employers seem to have a steady flow of work advising investors on some of their complex credit portfolios.

Others have a more hard-scrabble existence. After all, the competitors are giant-killers: Blackrock, PIMCO, as well as the solutions desks at the big banks, to name just a few.

The secret to pitching yourself

I advocate a different approach. Now that cost-cutting, re-capitalisation and other immediate priorities from the credit crisis have been tackled, many commercial department heads are now asking, "where is the growth going to come from?" And answers like "emerging markets" or "commodities" are just too vague to be actionable business plans.

Here, therefore, is an opportunity to present them with a practical solution without having the hassle or organizing a brand or a boutique.

1) Start with an area you know well

Identify a business line or product that involves a limited investment and good potential upside. It does not have to be original; perhaps just overlooked during the manic cost-cutting of the past few years.

2) Identify your target

Then pitch the idea to a bank (or hedge fund or other financial services firm) with the proposal that you work as a contractor to implement it. Good targets might be the growing number of mid-tier firms that are trying to move up the ranking to fill the void vacated by larger banks.

3) Persist

You will have to call a lot of people (and probably hear "no" more than you might be accustomed to) but you only need one "yes" to get you going. And success at one place becomes a powerful incentive for a competitor to contract you to do it for them.

Hiring headcount is hurdle at most banks, given how much revenue is required to justify a full-time hire, so dealing with you as a contractor is in their interest. And if you still really want to get back inside of a large institution, you have a few months to show them that you can produce, at which time (assuming you deliver), you can pitch them for a full-time position.

Of course the key here is to have an attractive idea. Michael Milken once said something like, "There is no shortage of capital, just a shortage of good ideas (OK - he went to jail, but he is still rich and smart). But if you really are bright, hardworking and creative, you should be able to produce one. Give it a try - your only downside is the time it takes to think.

Ad meliora!

The author is a senior investment banker, wise beyond his years.