Bankers Now Soul Searching

As most of you know the Prince is a fan of Jonathan Knee and his book Accidental Investment Banker.  Mssr. Knee wrote a really interesting article yesterday in the WSJ entitled "Must I Bank?".  Not sure many people saw it since it was buried in the paper.

Here is an excerpt:

"When the music of financial-services contraction stops, there will be a lot of investment bankers without seats. Merrill Lynch alone recently said it would lay off another 2,900 people, on top of the 1,100 jobs already eliminated this year. The total number of eliminated banking jobs is likely to dwarf the 90,000 over the two years following the Internet bust of 2000.

For many of these bankers, getting fired could be the best thing that ever happened to them.
Rainer Maria Rilke, in "Letters to a Young Poet," offers some words of wisdom that the newly jobless would do well to consider: "This most of all: ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: must I write?" Rilke warned of the hardships of his chosen craft, arguing that if the poet could even imagine living without writing, he would be better off doing so.

This kind of profound introspection is rarely undertaken by those young professionals who march off to investment banking careers based more on what is expected of them than on any deep commitment to the field. They should take a moment to ask themselves: Must I bank?

Such introspection, even if it comes late in life, can lead to greater fulfillment than scrambling for the next best investment banking job that might still be available. I wrote in my last book that the opportunity to really pause and face a world where the next step has not been preordained can be a profoundly cathartic learning experience. Judging from the emails I received after the last bust, many may have benefited from doing just that."

The Prince agrees with everything that Knee argues in this article.  Anyone considering a career in banking should read this article. It also offers a framework for how those who have been laid off should think about their situation.  It may actually end up being the best thing that ever happened to them, even if it feels like the end of the world right now.