Dan Whiteford, Ex-MF Global Employee, Struggling To Land Job At Target

Those years at MF Global can't even ensure you a retail job these days.

Former mid-level MF Global employee Dan Whiteford says he has yet to be offered a job after interviewing to be a cashier at Target, as well as an assembly line worker at Chrysler.

“You have to do what you have to do," Whiteford told the Wall Street Journal, who, as a mid-level employee, counts among the group of ex-workers from the now-bankrupt firm struggling to find jobs. After sending out 50 jobs applications a day, many MF Global employees have been told they’re either overqualified for the position they're seeking or not qualified enough.

CNNMoney estimated last year that only about one-quarter of MF Global's laid-off employees would find work in the first part of this year, a reality reflected by a "dour" holiday party former employees held last December. MF Global laid off 1,066 employees almost immediately after the firm collapsed last October.

It's not just MF Global workers that are suffering though; across the financial sector 500,000 have been cut in the 100 largest U.S. cities since 2008, according to Business Journals. Last September, Bank of America announced it would be cutting 30,000 jobs over the next five years alone.

For laid off employees at MF Global and other finance firms, the real trouble may be finding new jobs amid a shrinking industry. As a result, some are attempting to dive into the world of tech startups. One has even become a successful author by writing a parody of the financial crisis based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

Others on Wall Street are trying to leave the industry by choice. In fact, around 20 percent of young adults that work in financial services are trying to switch careers, according to a recent survey.

Many aren’t fortunate enough to have a choice. One former MF Global employee says he’s had to dip into his kids' college fund while he plans his next move. And younger victims of layoffs at other Wall Street firms have had to move back in with their parents, taking big pay cuts if they are fortunate enough to find new jobs at all.

The experience isn’t limited to the banking sector either. Because most of the jobs created after the recession have been low-paying ones, according to a survey last year by the National Employment Law Project, laid-off professionals in a number of traditionally high-paying sectors are facing big pay cuts.

Comments

[miriamfl]

06:32 PM on 05/11/2012

I am assuming that if they lost their banking jobs they also lost their healthcare???? I would like to know what the banksters that now don't have work or healthcare would think about a HEALTHCARE FOR ALL or MEDICARE FOR A FOR ALL plan ???? Just sayin !

[gmb007]

04:13 PM on 05/09/2012

Welcome to the REAL world, M F.

[Peeking into Life]

12:42 PM on 05/09/2012

To all those wide eyed believers in Romney.

Romney will not create jobs...he didn't do it last year or the year before (and that record is long on nothing done) so odds are he will continue not creating jobs if he were to ever be elected. And why ....(if he ever was to be elected) he got elected not creating one job, so why bother after the election? Think people...think!

I am more inclined to believe he will remain much the same as he is today....working hard to make the rich richer, playing politics instead of governing.

[miriamfl]

06:34 PM on 05/11/2012

Exactly, he that the DO NOTHING GOPz will continue what the Bush Mis administration almost accomplish, the total end of this once GREAT NATION.

[coffeebeaner]

11:38 AM on 05/09/2012

He won't get the job. I believe this is what economists refer to when they say there is a skills mismatch. I've gone this route a thousand times with my high end management, business development and technology skills only to be ignored or told less experienced candidates were chosen. Other negatives for these type of jobs are that if your resume looks like you are overskilled, hiring companies like Target tend to look at you as someone who will leave as soon as a better opportunity comes along.

[realitybaby]

11:29 AM on 05/09/2012

Hey where are all those wealthy JOB CREATORS?

[Azlegit]

11:24 AM on 05/09/2012

Vote for Romney in November and not only will auto workers thrive, but perhaps energy jobs and many others will slowly but surely offer opportunities.

[Peeking into Life]

12:36 PM on 05/09/2012

I'd say pay better attention to actions than what is being said...but I don't think it would help. Scary to be blindsided with promises that will not come true.

[Azlegit]

12:44 PM on 05/09/2012

I agree as we have been seeing this for the past 3 1/2 years.....

[miriamfl]

06:38 PM on 05/11/2012

Oh, you mean that everything that President Obama has proposed and attempted to do and the TeaPottys GOP have been holding up to make President Obama a one term prez will pass with a Repuglican President????

[feyangel]

11:20 AM on 05/09/2012

I got so frustrated with my industry (real estate and mortgage brokerage), I applied for jobs in retail (I had been in retail management for 9 years prior to getting into real estate in '97). I was told I was over-educated and over-qualified. Interviewers would also ask me why I would want to work for their company after 15 years as a self-employed person. It was very de-moralizing. BUT it was inspirational to plunge into a new aspect of my business (syndicating small investor groups for multi-family properties)-- and I began to examine my "relationship" with money at a very deep level, healing many old wounds.

[Patrice Stevens]

09:11 AM on 05/09/2012

I did not work in the financial sector, it took me six months to find employement and then it was as a contract worker (temp) My 2 year assignment ends in September...hopefully I will find something right away but I doubt it. I just submitted for another long term temp assignment. A lot of companies are using temp workers rather than direct hire, they pay the agency the agency pays the worker, they dont have to supply benefits for that worker. Sometimes a temp assignment can turn into a full time gig, but that does not happen a lot these days. Yes there are jobs out there, perhaps the government should talk the employers and ask them why they turn away people willing to work?

[MekhongKurt]

08:31 AM on 05/09/2012

From the story: ". . . most of the jobs created after the recession have been low-paying ones . . ."

Try telling that to folks such as the governors of Texas and Wisconsin. Governor Perry, in particular, will boast about "His" creation of "jobs for Texans," ignoring not only the above fact, but that some 40% of those jobs were taken by people *not* from Texas -- regardless of who "created" them.

[ruburnt]

09:50 AM on 05/09/2012

illegals?

[Scurvydog74]

11:22 PM on 05/08/2012

Who would ever trust a former financial sector employee with a cash register?

[njgal4obama]

10:57 PM on 05/08/2012

You lay down with dogs, you're gonna get fleas.

Target team members don't want your fleas.

[olitenup]

10:55 PM on 05/08/2012

Welcome post bush era. In 2008 the company I worked for laid off 650 people, many of them engineers, with very strong ties to the community. They couldn't beg, or borrow a job from anyone like Target either.

[ceekreewd]

10:46 PM on 05/08/2012

Well, according to the GOP and certain Governors and business 'leaders' -- these millions and millions of unemployed types are the real cause of our economic ruin...sitting around on the couch all day, demanding government handouts...lol
I would like to meet one of these unemployed Wall Street types just so I could greet them with the warmest compassion of capitalism;' Get a job, ya bum !'

[kamact]

10:26 PM on 05/08/2012

Go to your executive team and demand money....just so simple....

[KarmaPatrol]

09:17 PM on 05/08/2012

Times are pretty tough all over. The financial services seem to be an area ripe for automation or, increasingly, having computer whizzes program algorithms to trade (about 90% of trades now). Seems one will need a double PhD in math and computer science to stay in financial services except for cashiers and loan managers.

Could go to trade school for plumbing or electrician.