I want to escape banking...

[blueislander]

Hi all,

new here... looking for some inspiration!

I'm a PM who has done the last 4 years in and out of a large bank in london on contracts. Prior to that I was a permie for two other large banks across 7 years. I've just called time on my contract as I am somewhat dissilusioned with the never-ending nature of what I am working on.

Everything that is out there seems to be banking - risk, regulatory, fund accountants etc. Problem is, I don't want to do that anymore - my PM skills could really be used on something different - i've had enough of working in this environment for at least a year or two.

So what else is out there? I am SE based but can work across home counties and midlands if need be - I invoice at around the 500 mark but can and will be flexible and I just want a change. The wife is all for it to put a smile on my face,

I see other people who seem to have worked all over for the police, car companies, aerospace... am I looking on the wrong recruitment sites, or am I forever doomed to work in banking?

Any help/advice would be appreciated - having been in my own bubble I suppose it's new to me in some ways. On the positive side I have a few weeks off to relax but I would like to start lining things up and doing my homework.

Cheers.

[eek]

I can't offer help as I intentionally don't spend enough time in 1 industry to end up stuck in it.

However, I hope you are aware that London and then Banking offer a premium compared to other industries and location. A developer on a £500 contract in London and Banking would likely be on £350 outside London. And I cannot imagine a PM would be very different..

[TheFaQQer]

I see other people who seem to have worked all over for the police, car companies, aerospace... am I looking on the wrong recruitment sites, or am I forever doomed to work in banking?

If you are looking outside banking, make sure your CV screams how transferable the skills are, or agents will always assume that you won't be able to do anything else.

If you aren't getting any calls back when you submit your CV for roles, then follow it up with a call, so you can stress how you can work across industries. That might not come across on the CV, so take the opportunity to explain it - they may even give you some tips about wording your CV differently so that that comes out better.

I would guess that it's easier to break out of banking than to break into it, though.

[blueislander]

Cheers - you are right, I should change my cv to focus more on my skills and less on banking Banking BANKING.

Acknowledge the rate drop - i would drop my rate for a better balance of job enjoyment and not being in the city. I have offers to go into other banks but urgh, just really would like to break out.

Having talked to the missus we realised that a bit of time away from the industry wouldn't hurt. One of my biggest bugbears is that I really am not managing anything - it's the usual story of some horrid governance, doing a load of analysis and just jumping from one panic-stricken reactionary enviroment to another. I don't expect other channels of work to be all that different but a change of scenary and the change to apply some skills that I actually trained for would be nice.

Maybe I am asking too much at the end of it all...!

[blazing]

Paste your cv on wordle.net and see if banking screams out. If yes, then reduce the occurrences of that keyword.

[JRCT]

I've just done the same, moving onto a government project after bieng in banking for the last 7 years (2 as a contractor).

I don't think I did anything different, but my skills are very transferrable and that's definitely apparant on my CV. Previously, I've worked in brewing, motor and civil service, among others.

One thing that worries me is that, even if my current contract is only a year, will time have moved on within the Finance industry so much that I can't catch up again?

I was working on CRDIV stuff last year and I had other offers to continue with that, but chose to leave the industry, like you, for a bit of a change. Now I'm thinking that by the time I want to go back it could be a completely different set of regs that my CV can't sell me for. I'm sure it'll be fine, but it's a slight worry.

[blueislander]

I've just done the same, moving onto a government project after bieng in banking for the last 7 years (2 as a contractor).

I don't think I did anything different, but my skills are very transferrable and that's definitely apparant on my CV. Previously, I've worked in brewing, motor and civil service, among others.

One thing that worries me is that, even if my current contract is only a year, will time have moved on within the Finance industry so much that I can't catch up again?

I was working on CRDIV stuff last year and I had other offers to continue with that, but chose to leave the industry, like you, for a bit of a change. Now I'm thinking that by the time I want to go back it could be a completely different set of regs that my CV can't sell me for. I'm sure it'll be fine, but it's a slight worry.

How did you get into those other arenas? Any specific job board sites? I seem to just hit banking and nothing else.

I agree about the concern of banking moving on but the way I see it I need a change and frankly the bamks will still be a shambles in a year or two and will still need PMs to clean up the mess

[JRCT]

How did you get into those other arenas? Any specific job board sites? I seem to just hit banking and nothing else.

I agree about the concern of banking moving on but the way I see it I need a change and frankly the bamks will still be a shambles in a year or two and will still need PMs to clean up the mess

I don't think anyone will argue with your last statement.

In my case, I didn't look anywhere different to the places I did previously. I work in Edinburgh, mainly, so maybe it's different up here. Although there is still a massive finance sector here and I would say 90% of the roles I look at/ are sent are, indeed, within banking or finance.

I think if you have a good relationship with an agency (by good, I mean they know who you are when you phone them), then you can make them aware and they can bear you in mind when these roles come up. As someone said, generally speaking I think that non-finance industry roles can pay less so that gives you an advantage as one can safely presume there'll be less competition, all other things being equal.

[oliverson]

Hi all,

new here... looking for some inspiration!

I'm a PM who has done the last 4 years in and out of a large bank in london on contracts. Prior to that I was a permie for two other large banks across 7 years. I've just called time on my contract as I am somewhat dissilusioned with the never-ending nature of what I am working on.

Everything that is out there seems to be banking - risk, regulatory, fund accountants etc. Problem is, I don't want to do that anymore - my PM skills could really be used on something different - i've had enough of working in this environment for at least a year or two.

So what else is out there? I am SE based but can work across home counties and midlands if need be - I invoice at around the 500 mark but can and will be flexible and I just want a change. The wife is all for it to put a smile on my face,

I see other people who seem to have worked all over for the police, car companies, aerospace... am I looking on the wrong recruitment sites, or am I forever doomed to work in banking?

Any help/advice would be appreciated - having been in my own bubble I suppose it's new to me in some ways. On the positive side I have a few weeks off to relax but I would like to start lining things up and doing my homework.

Cheers.

I can relate to this, I really can.

Anyhow, if I was you I'd consider getting away from the South East/London altogether. Overpriced and no quality of life.

My advice to you would be to move into something like retail banking (I did the opposite - Retail -> Investment). Your skills would be relevant but it's a very different environment, much more relaxed. I know that there are loads of PM and BA roles at Lloyds Banking Group in West Yorkshire - the Copley Data Centre - beautiful part of the world, house prices half down the SE, and those roles are paying £ 500 and above.

I'm a developer and would love to get back there but it seems most of the dev work of offshored. I live in eternal hope that something crops upthough as it's only 20 mins from home. Instead I'm stuck down London midweek every week, looking for a way out like you are.

Good luck.

[Eirikur]

Problem is that the recruitment agencies won't put you forward for roles outside banking, even if your skills are perfectly well usable for other industries.