TRANCHED: Time to apply myself and earn some money

A new era in the banking industry started this week. Globally, banks have been pumped full of government funds. Nationalisation is flavour of the month.

What will government involvement or ownership mean for the banks? For banks with large investment banking arms, I would imagine the new owners will be keen to distance themselves from the kind of headlong risk-taking that has taken so much of the blame for the current crisis. I suspect the government will be forced to take an axe to investment banking elements just to satisfy the mobs baying for overpaid bankers' blood.

This is a shame, because as JPMorgan showed this week, investment banking can still turn a profit. The government bureaucrats should not forget that they are now shareholders on behalf of the tax-paying public and owe a duty of care to optimise the return on their investment.

At the moment, though, people are in limbo. Friends working in the markets division at RBS have been grounded and had all holiday cancelled. They are being forced to wait it out and see what the new men in grey decide to do with them, although they suspect the news is bleak. The departure of Sir Fred "the Shred" Goodwin was welcome to most of them: the man who oversaw the ego-driven purchase of ABN AMRO when cracks had already begun to appear in the global economy deserved to fall on his sword. But it was too little and too late.

On the plus side, I start a new job next week. It is a contract role for a start-up risk consultancy and seems to be reasonably flexible in terms of longevity. It also offers a good day rate for the work, which could prove challenging and even interesting.

I met my new colleagues yesterday and we all seem to have similar tales to tell. It's encouraging that they seem to come from a broad spectrum of market segments, so I should be able to learn about areas of the business that I have not encountered before.

Despite my changed status, I still remain in contact with recruiters. When I checked my e-mails this morning, the following appeared in my inbox - sent from a recruitment consultant who has graced this column before:

Dear XXXX

Hope you are well.

We are meeting HR for jobs specifications across structuring and origination over the next week.

Can you please let me know: over the last 6 months, exactly which banks have you interviewed with? (Bank name/ Name of person you met/ How long ago).

This will not affect any future application we make for you to the bank - the HR will not mind, as long as you tell us clearly who you have previously met with before hand.

I can only think that recruiters are so desperate that they are resorting to underhand tactics to get names. When I started this column I thought they offered the best route back; in reality, they offer very little. I accept that this is a sweeping generalisation and that there have been a few diamonds in the rough, but shoddy practices like that shown in the e-mail above should be outlawed.

For the moment however, my thoughts are more on the excitement of getting back to work. I have had a great five months on the sidelines and an invaluable opportunity to get to know my new daughter, but the time has come to get back to reality, start applying myself, and earn some money.

CDO Joe is a structured products specialist who lost his job 22 weeks ago.