Life After Wall Street: Planning Your Next Move

It’s also a good idea to get input from former colleagues, family and friends.

Ask them three questions, says Stefanie Smith, head of Stratex, an executive consulting and coaching firm:

1) What are my greatest assets?

2) What traits might hold me back in the recruiting process?

3) Where could I excel in a different field or role?

You never know, the people you know may be better able to identify your next job than you are.

“They might say, ‘Even though you worked in a sales position when we worked together five years ago, I always thought you would be good on the product-development side,’” Gross offers as an example.

Where to Find the Jobs

One of the biggest mistakes people make—even aggressive, Alpha-dog types—is being lazy about their job search.

“Careers don’t just happen—life happens,” Polachi says. “Careers can be planned and built one strategic move at a time.”

Browse general job-listing sites such as Monster.com for ideas, but also check finance-specific boards such as eFinancialCareers.com and JobsintheMoney.com.

Post your resume on executive-specific sites such as BlueSteps.com and TheLadders.com. The fees charged by some of those sites are steep—they want to ensure that they remain senior-level only—but it’s worth the investment in your career.

Trade-group sites offer a triple play: industry news, job boards and networking events. Among them: the American Bankers Association, National Association of Credit Management, Association for Finance Professionals and National Association of Securities Professionals.

Career advisers also encourage the use of networking sites for professionals, such as LinkedIn.com, Plaxo.com and Twitter.com. It takes a little while to build a network, so if you start while you’re employed, you'll give yourself a head start.

And don’t forget your alma mater: Lots of universities have job boards and networking events. And they’re partial to alums!

If you know where you want to work, put that place in your crosshairs and focus all of your attention on hitting the target: Check the company’s Web site for job openings. Then, Gross suggests, reach out to your network with a quick blast, such as: “Hey, anyone out there know somebody at this company who can help me make an introduction?”

Also, keep track of job moves in your industry, she advises. If you see that someone you worked with 10 years ago has a new job at a firm that interests you, shoot them a note: “Hey, congrats! I saw you made a move to XYZ. I’d love to talk to you more about what you’re doing there.”

Seize the Opportunity

When you lose your job, it can feel like you’ve fallen off the corporate ladder and all your hard work is down the drain.

But it can be just the opposite.

“Life is more forgiving than that,” says Sathe, who started RiseSmart after being laid off from Travelocity parent Sabre Holdings in 2007.

“You can have a great, successful life and still have some detours on your path,” he says. “In fact, many people, in looking back … consider these detours to have been the most important times in their lives.”

Joshua Persky, an unemployed investment banker, was getting frustrated that, after six months, none of the regular job-hunting avenues—sending resumes, searching online job boards and networking—were turning up any promising leads. So, he slapped on a sandwich board that said “MIT Grad for Hire” over his suit and headed over to the Charles Schwab building at 50th and Park in Manhattan to hand out resumes.

Next thing you know, he's showing up in major media outlet everywhere, from the New York Times and the BBC to the cover of a Greek financial magazine.

Persky is out there only a few hours a day, but it's raised his profile tremendously. He’s received hundreds of inquiries from media and companies wanting to know more about him.

“I’m huge in Japan!” he exclaims.

Who wants to make a bet that guy’s next move is a book deal?

Oh, and if you’re worried about competing with the text-messaging generation, good news! During these uncertain times, companies are putting a lot of value on experience.

“Grey hair and bald is in vogue right now,” Gross says.

© 2009 CNBC.com

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