Act like a consultant

Why pay for management consultants when you could simply read one of their reports?

The Management Consultancies Association and Accenture have both published reports with top tips for “downturn virgins”, those company managers who have had no experience of working through a recession.

Much of the advice is about focusing on what matters: strategy, budgets, seizing opportunities and looking after employees, customers and suppliers.

Go public

Commentators in The Economist (October 25) forecast that high-flying university graduates in 2009 will eschew financial careers for roles in law, management consultancy and the public sector.

According to the article: “The biggest winner from recession may be the teaching profession - particularly in maths and physics, where it has long struggled to compete for talent with banking and finance.”

The website for the Training and Development Agency (which oversees teacher training) has already received a third more hits this year than in 2007.

Act confident

A survey by Kenexa a recruitment company, has found that three out of five British employees are confident that they will not be made redundant.

The survey of 16,000 workers, including 1,000 in the UK, also showed that employees in India were the most confident with 81 per cent not worried by redundancy.

However, workers in Japan were the least confident with only 46 per cent thinking that they would keep hold of their jobs.

Do not take risks

A poll of 2,731 workers in the financial markets by HereistheCity.com, the website, has shown that more than 97 per cent of those working in risk-related roles feel secure in their jobs, followed by 93 per cent of those in compliance and 83.5 per cent of those in private banking.

The least secure? Not surprisingly,

it is the hedge fund professionals - only 6.2 per cent said that they currently felt secure in their employment.

Be happy

Sophie Rowan, a psychologist and author, said: “A buoyant economy and job market can generate feelings that you should upgrade your job, buy an SUV and have a bigger house, when in fact you might be perfectly happy with what you have. This ‘keeping up with the Jones' or status anxiety syndrome is much more prevalent in times of affluence. A tighter job market has the converse effect - people appreciate the job that they have, stop competing and if they are wise, make the most of their job."

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