There are a few bright spots for investment banking job hiring, reports the Wall Street Journal. Even amid the fears that Wall Street may reverse its recent hiring spree.

Some firms, such as Barclays Capital, the investment banking unit of Barclays PLC, have eliminated jobs. But others say they will continue to hire for important positions and expand the businesses they entered as the markets recovered last year.

Nomura Securities, for example, has hired more than 600 people since March 2009 and is continuing its plans to hire 300 more by March 2011. French bank BNP Parabas SA plans to continue its hiring in the U.S. for capital markets professionals as well.

According to Bureau of Labor statistics quoted in the article, U.S. securities-industry employment in June 2010 was up 1.2% since March, but still short 57,500 jobs or 6.7% since the peak in 2007. New York area securities industry jobs have been rising too, but are still well below their peak.

Wall Street is adjusting to new pay structures, which could impact hiring decisions. The trend is toward an increase in salary and less in bonuses. Base salaries on Wall Street are up as much as 40% this year, according to Jeff Visithpanich at Johnson Associates Consulting. Cash bonuses are down, with more incentive pay coming in the form of stock which can be clawed back, if necessary.

Nevertheless, many employers are playing a waiting game to see if the economy will regain momentum or drift back into recession, before committing to major hiring moves.

What’s your opinion? Has the investment banking job hiring surge ground to a halt or are there pockets of opportunity? Add your comments below.

Investment banking stars will frequently switch firms for higher compensation. And the firms trying to lure these stars often get into a “bidding war” for talent, just like top sports teams.

That’s the theme behind a new book from Harvard Business School Professor Boris Groysberg called Chasing Stars. Groysberg bases his book on an in-depth study of investment banking analysts because they are the ultimate “free-agent” knowledge workers, according a review in The Globe and Mail.

The best investment banking analysts are almost like celebrities, appearing regularly in the media. Their expertise will well known and completely portable. An investment banking analyst who switches firms usually follows the same industries, so the job and network needed stays the same. Plus they don’t have to uproot their families. Most continue to work in the New York area. In addition, their performance is carefully tracked by respected trade journals, such as Institutional Investor, which compiles an annual ranking of the best investment banking analysts. So it’s easy to compare the “players.”

Groysberg’s main premise: There is often an auction for a star’s services, and the winning bidder, who most liberally estimates the analyst’s worth, will most almost certainly overpay.

This would be fine if the analyst increased his or her output or value to the firm, but that’s not usually the case. Groysberg’s study found that the most mobile stars experienced an immediate degradation in performance. For instance, an analyst who made Institutional Investor’s top rankings and stayed put usually stayed in the top rankings 83.9 percent of the time. Whereas a top-ranked analyst who jumped shipped remained in the top ranks only 69.4 percent of the time. Even after years at a new firm, star analysts who changed employers more frequently underperformed the star analysts who stayed put.

One reason, according to the review, was the impact of the firm’s culture on their performance. Yes, analysts can take their experience and contacts with them. But they sometimes underestimate the special culture or unique economic models which their previous firm provided, or the support provided by other members of the firm. “What they left behind, in short, were the capabilities of the old firm and the practiced, seamless fit between their own skill and the resources of the company,” Groysberg says.

What’s your opinion? Is the grass always greener at a new firm? When is it smarter to stay put at your current firm and when is it absolutely time to switch investment banking jobs? Add your comments below.

It’s no secret that some star traders at big Wall Street investment banks may be looking for greener pastures in the wake of the new Volcker rule. The Volcker rule is part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill signed by President Obama last month. The rule stipulates that big banks can’t invest more than 3% of their Tier 1 capital into private equity and hedge funds.

The rule mostly affects the big firms with proprietary desks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America. An article in TheStreet.com says Goldman, for instance, is considering moving its two large proprietary trading desks, which manage about $9 billion, into its asset management arm.

But working in asset management may be a downgrade for these top guns. Apparently there’s a belief on the street that proprietary traders get better information than their counterparts in asset management. And it’s not without some quantitative support. Goldman’s proprietary results in areas such as fixed income currencies and commodities have tended to be better than their asset management cousins.

If proprietary traders are forced into the asset management division, it could mean they’ll be even more willing to entertain offers from hedge funds looking to lure away top investment banking traders. The assumption is that hedge funds could match the information resources to which they’ve grown accustomed.

What’s your take? Do you think the big firms give their own desks an edge? Add your comments below.

After cutting back on hiring just a year ago, Wells Fargo has been adding investment banking jobs to its ranks. 

The San Francisco-based bank added about 30 associates and about 50 analysts this summer, recruited primarily from business school graduates and undergraduates. The bank is also looking to add a handful of senior bankers to bolster a group that advises corporate clients on mergers and stock and bond offerings, according to an article in Tradingmarkets.com

The uptick in hiring is thought to be a sign that the company is investing in its Charlotte, NC-based Wachovia Corp. division, which it acquired in 2008, in the midst of the financial crisis. About 60 percent of the Wachovia workforce is reportedly in the Charlotte, with the other hubs being New York and San Francisco.

The new direction for Wachovia may veer away from proprietary trading and risky mortgage-related products that caused trouble for the firm in the past. Instead, industry insiders predict that the firm will capitalize on its strong client relationships and knowledge of industry sectors to focus on the advisory side of the business.

Have you worked for Wachovia or know someone who has? What’s your opinion of the company? Add your comments below.

Or any other job, for that matter, says Jeremy Hazlehurst in an article for CityAM online, London’s free daily business paper. There are plenty of opportunities, if you’re willing to put in that extra bit of effort.

Hazlehurst says if you are job-hunting, then you are likely to have plenty of interviews. The challenge is to separate yourself from the pack, especially if you are young, and lack experience. The answer: being passionate about what you want, what you have done, and finding creative ways to talk about it.

He suggests writing “vignettes” about what you’ve done and practicing these stories. If you’ve run something, whether it’s a small business, a magazine or a theater group, write down the story and tell people. Interviewers don’t expect you to have all the skills needed for a new job. But they are looking for someone with passion, energy and chutzpah, who knows how to make things happen. That energy often translates into an ability to learn new skills quickly.

And once you land a position, even if it’s only a temporary low-paying job or internship, don’t spend time moaning about the pay, he says. This is your moment to over-deliver. Do more than what you’ve been employed to do, without drawing too much attention and seeming to be self-aggrandizing. The right people will notice.

What’s you’re #1 tip for a younger person looking to break into an investment banking job today? Add your comments below.

The financial meltdown put a lot of investment banking careers on hold, or even off the rails. Some people were out of work for months, others even longer. If you or someone you know has been out of work for a while, you might want to pick up a copy of Back on the Career Track by Carol Fishman Cohen.

Cohen was on maternity leave from Drexel Burnham Lambert when the investment banking firm blew up in 1990. Although she worked a few part-time gigs off and on, she ended up spending about 11 years away from full-time work and raising a family.

When she finally decided to go back to work fulltime, she landed a job in Bain Capital’s high-yield debt management group. However, it wasn’t a great fit. Not because she wanted to get back to her family, but because her career interests had changed. She used to love financial analysis and modeling. Now she wanted to work more with people. According to Cohen, who was interviewed for an article in Forbes, “I skipped one of the most important steps in my career re-entry.” That step was doing a thorough career assessment before she headed back to work full-time.

Cohen and a partner subsequently started iRelaunch, a company that runs events and virtual coaching sessions for people who are re-entering the workforce after a long break.

Among the tips Cohen suggests in the Forbes article: first, figure out your appetite for work now. How much and how hard do you want to work? What sort of support do you have for this workload from your spouse? Your family?

Assess your job skills and desires. That’s the step Cohen forgot when she jumped back to work at Bain. The longer you’re away from your previous job, the more likely your interests have changed. This is the time to really look closely at what you want to be doing. For those people who weren’t terribly happy in their old jobs, this step could be a real gift.

And the fact that you’ve been away from the workforce for a long time doesn’t have to be a negative, either. It can also crank up your enthusiasm for how hard you’ll work and how eager you are to succeed, something that could be used to separate yourself from other candidates.

Have you or someone you know been away from the workforce for an extended period of time? What factors helped you (or them) get back on track? Add your comments below.

JPMorgan Chase is poised to increase its profits and gain market share in many business sectors, including investment banking, even while many of its competitors are still struggling to recover from the financial crisis.

An article in Dealbook describes how CEO James Dimon has led the financial behemoth through the crisis by keeping a closer eye on risk than his rivals. And how he then went hunting for bargains, significantly expanding the firm’s strength in investment and retail banking while other firms were shrinking.

Still, while JPMorgan’s overall balance sheet is in better shape than most, the bank does not yet enjoy a top position in any single line of business. But that could change. Dimon has announced plans to pour more than $10 billion into the bank’s core businesses, including an aggressive push into Brazil, China and other emerging markets.

Plus, with the purchase of Bear Stearns, JPMorgan has filled gaps in its capacity for investment banking, stock and commodities trading and added a lucrative prime brokerage business, which provides financing to hedge funds.

Could JPMorgan be a good target for your investment banking job search? Let us know your thoughts about the firm, below.

Finding investment banking jobs for mid-career job seekers can be a challenge, especially in tough markets. We recently spoke with Pam Lassiter, the author of The New Job Security, to seek her advice on this topic. A veteran career adviser, Pam has provided career advice for three decades and has seen many up and down job markets. In this interview excerpt, she offers some practical advice for someone looking for investment banking jobs.

Job Search Digest: For that mid-career job seeker, somebody who’s got 5, 10, maybe even 15 years of experience, how do they best position – how do they best market themselves, especially in the environment that we’re in right now?

Pam Lassiter: Good question.  A lot of the people I work with, and I think your members too, will often come to you saying, “I haven’t looked for a job before in my whole career.”

Job Search Digest: Absolutely. We get a lot of that. We get folks who have said, “Look, right out of school I was recruited and since then it’s just been upwards trajectory.” You know, unless somebody was mid-career in the early ’80s they really haven’t seen something like this. I mean we obviously had the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, but that wasn’t this — this is something different.

Pam Lassiter: No. That was very sector-dependent and this is universal, across all sectors. It’s as I was talking to you earlier about, this is actually an opportunity.

So, this is the first time you have either been blindsided or needed to make a change in your career.  The one word I can pass on to you is congratulations.

What I see happening with a lot of people is what I call the “pinball career.” I write about this in my book, and how to control it too. Pinballing is reacting to what hits you.  You may be getting promotions inside of your firm, which is great.

There’s nothing wrong with pinball careers; it’s that you’re never thinking strategically, ‘Is this the right move for me right now, given my interests and how I want to develop my career?’  Because a recruiter calls and it’s convenient. “Your boss says we want you to take over x.”  And sure, why not?  You’re reacting to external forces.

If you’re in mid-career and looking for a job for the first time, congratulations, you’re going to get to shape what happens to you next, and it’s not by chasing jobs all the time. Job listings are an invaluable source of information and they’re a great way to find out where there’s smoke in a company.  So you can certainly respond, but I suggest that you also develop that “Jack-of-all-trades, master of two.”

What’s your area of expertise that you can talk to companies about, even if they don’t have “job openings”?  If you talk to people about compliance and about regulatory knowledge, about what’s coming through Congress, if you can save a company or firm money or make them money, they will create work for you to do.

Now, notice I said “work,” I didn’t say “job”.

It may start with a project.  It may start with a consulting assignment.  But then you can back in and you’ve got the camel’s nose in the tent.  If you can get yourself in and get to know the people and get to know where the pain is, you can often create jobs as well.  So you can start by analyzing what target markets do I belong in and what are their needs, and then a third step, how do I package myself to respond to these needs.  Conversations to be had all over.

Job Search Digest: Your example of taking on some project work and to be test-driven in this process is a good one because the hiring decision is so different after you’ve completed a successful project that was targeted at a very specific pain.  It’s your opportunity to really showcase what you can do.

And if you can get your foot in the door and you can get that short-term project, and in some extreme cases you may even do it on spec, right?  You might say, “Look, let me do this project.  You tell me the value that I added.”

But at the end of that process, if you’ve done a great job, the firm has already discussed on the inside that they want to bring you on board, because assuming there’s more work like that or more problems to be solved, you’re the obvious choice at that point.

Pam Lassiter: Oh, you’re onto a big secret there too.  So that’s a great idea to bring up.  I don’t use volunteering casually. There may be a place – if you’re between jobs now there may be a place for you to think of one firm – you can only do one of these at a time, because you have a real campaign to be running outside of this, but to volunteer to do something with a company.

Let’s say they have antiquated modeling software and that you happen to have a better, faster, cheaper, more streamlined way. Not only can you back into that company; they should be paying you with it, but you’re not leading with that conversation. You’re leading with improved results and decision-making in your conversation.

And if you actually help them install some improved software, you’d probably get to talk to every partner there is in that firm. You’re interviewing them about how they use it and what their needs are; you’re talking to their admins.  And talk about the most powerful group in any firm is the administrators, because they have access to the people that you want to talk to. So you have to interview a lot of people.

So it’s finding a problem.

And if you need to back in through one volunteer project, fine. Better yet, get paid for it. But you worry about that at the end. Get them hooked on the need and the problem to be solved and you’d be happy to give them a hand and help them think it through so they don’t have to spend too much time on it.

Job Search Digest: That’s great advice.

Pam Lassiter: Well, notice how I also packaged it with what was in it for them, “You don’t have to spend time thinking about this. Let me talk to you about your needs and then we’ll make it happen.”

About Pam Lassiter

In addition to authoring The New Job Security, Pam Lassiter is the founder of Lassiter Consulting, a firm that offers career management services such as employee retention, career coaching, outplacement and more to companies and individuals worldwide.

Did you want to listen in on the entire Pam Lassiter Interview (to download, right click and “save as”)

Want to get Pam’s new book? You can pre-order the latest version of The New Job Security (and get a discount too)

One way you can boost your chance of landing an investment banking job is to go where the jobs are. That’s the word from Investopedia, which recently published an article on the best states for IB jobs. It was picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle which, not so coincidentally, was among the top areas (California) for investment banking.

No surprise that New York was at the top of the heap. 33 out of 50 top investment banks have their headquarters there. However, New York is also the eighth most expensive city in the world, and has a top marginal tax rate of 45% eating into your earnings.

California is the west coast financial center of the universe. Investment banking jobs cluster around Los Angeles and San Francisco. While there are only three worldwide headquarters in California, most of the big banks have sizeable regional offices there. LA and SF are also expensive cities, but far down the list at 23rd and 36th respectively.

Chicago, Illinois, comes in third. Chicago is well known for its Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchanges, involved primarily in the trading of commodities and derivatives. But all the major investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and others have offices there. The other upside: it’s a lot less expensive than living on the coast. Chicago was ranked 50th on the list of expensive cities and the state of Illinois has a much lower income tax rate.

What’s your take? What other cities in the U.S. would you rate as attractive centers of investment banking activity, as well as great places to live? Add your comments below.

Interested in the top cities for hedge fund jobs?

Financial firms are adding investment banking jobs and rebuilding staff in a big way, and offering guaranteed bonuses to lure top bankers over to their side.

Businessweek reports that five of the largest banks on Wall Street — Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley — increased their total headcount in the first quarter. And smaller firms such as Nomura Holdings and Jefferies Group are doing their best to recruit talent from other firms.

Compensation is up, too. Firms are reportedly paying 30 to 40 percent more to lure employees from other banks, according to a report by the Options Group, a New York-based executive search firm. Their report also said equity derivatives and commodities trading are two of the hottest, fastest-growing areas right now.

The Businessweek article noted that some firms are now offering pay packages as high as $8 million to attract investment bankers and top traders. The icing on the cake is guaranteed bonuses, which are paid regardless of how well the employee or the company performs. Industry leaders say it’s a sign that more people are beginning to be snared from other firms, rather than from the ranks of the unemployed.

Recruiters say banks including Nomura and UBS have offered top prospects one-year guarantees paying from $2 to $4 million. Some managing directors have had two-year guarantees dangled in front of them.

Things seem to be shifting back to employees being in the driver’s seat. What’s your take? Are you seeing an uptick in mobility among current bankers, with increasingly attractive compensation packages? Add your comments below.