Financial Services & Recruiting academyrecruiting on 07 Mar 2008 12:00 pm
“There may be a recession, but I refuse to participate.”
Enough already about the recession.
I don’t know about you, but, personally, I am really tired of reading yet another daily gloom-and-doom story about whether we’re in a recession or not. Maybe we are, maybe we’re not, but let’s just assume that we are - when I see somebody like Warren Buffett say a few days ago that “…by any common sense definition, we are in a recession.”, that’s good enough for me.
And, look, I’ll also readily acknowledge that there are people having some real problems, and I don’t mean to minimize those, but for most people, I think the recession is a lot more of an attitude issue than anything else.
The title of this post sums up just what I mean. It comes from a Dave Ramsey comment a couple weeks ago where he said “I talked to a guy the other day, he said, ‘There may be a recession, but I refuse to participate.” Exactly! (You can see that whole video interview with Dan Miller here.)
What Dave was driving at was the other end of the deal - the current slowdown is creating opportunities, as slowdowns always do. People are leaving companies - some voluntarily, some involuntarily, and maybe even with great severance packages - and that’s allowing (or forcing) them to pursue a new career or their lifelong dream.
More specifically, here’s where I see that effect in the financial services area in the two main groups I deal with - those making a career change to become financial advisors, and those experienced financial advisors looking to make a move to a different firm.
Bottom line, as I keep saying, is that there are lots of opportunities for both groups.
For the “newbies”, even with some of the cutbacks that have been made, there are still loads of open positions. The normal life cycle for advisors goes on - people leave the business or retire, and that creates an ongoing need for new people.
At the experienced financial advisor end, demand for top performers seems to be actually increasing, if anything. We continually see opportunities for and get requests to find peak performers, especially those who are over the $1 million annual production mark.
So, if you’re thinking about becoming a financial advisor, or if you’re an experienced financial advisor with a solid book of business thinking about making a change, don’t let all the current talk stop you. Sure, things are tough, but do you ever remember a time when there haven’t been challenges?
In the end, I’m with that guy Dave Ramsey talked to - just refuse to participate.
