As you may have heard, around 100,000 financial services employees are set to be laid off by the end of the year (with the cuts already beginning for some). How will those made redundant attempt to get back in the game? Some will hire headhunters. Others will reach out to friends in the industry. Yet others will post their resumes on employment websites, hoping to catch a nibble. And a small but apparently growing group of people will take the less traditional path of driving a New York City cab, which offers the dual-function of an income and a captive audience for your pitch.
Tough times have prompted more New Yorkers to seek financial relief and upward mobility in the taxi trade. The number of licensed city cabbies has risen by 10 percent since the stock market began its decline in late 2007, according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission. License renewals are up, too, officials said, suggesting that drivers who used to move on to higher-paying jobs are sticking with the hack trade for now. At Master Cabbie Taxi Academy in Long Island City, Queens, instructors have noticed an increase in former financial workers since the recession began. “As they lay off, people come through,” the owner, Terry Gelber, said.
Scott Curtis, for instance, worked on Wall Street for 25 years until he was made a casualty of the recession. When he first lost his job, he got in touch with a few recruiters and signed up with Monster, though neither helped him land a position with a hedge fund, where he’s hoping to end up.
“There are 20 million other people on Monster.com,” said Mr. Curtis, who chats up his fares in case a chief executive or headhunter has stumbled in. “I thought people would see this, and think, ‘He’ll go the extra yard to go and get a job.’ ” Passengers who climb into Mr. Curtis’s cab are greeted by a laminated sheet of paper reading: “Ask to see my résumé. You won’t be sorry!” It has led to three interviews, one with a major British bank, though none has yet resulted in a job offer. Mr. Curtis, who is hoping to land a hedge-fund position, said he decided to become a cabby after having little luck with traditional headhunters and job Web sites. “I just figured the best way to market myself was to be driving around town with a sign that said: ‘Hey, help me! I need a job!’ ” he said.
While cab-driving offers the laid-off a unique opportunity to get their names out there, “exploit the inefficiencies of the market” (“Herb Reyes heads to the usually deserted Avenue of the Americas in Midtown rather than the Meatpacking District, where he knows bankers who work the Asian markets will be looking for rides”), and earn “all-cash wages” as opposed to 90% stock/10% cash deferred over 12 years, it does come with some downsides, like ferrying around idiot first-years who you’re pretty sure don’t know dick about finance. Continue reading »
