Just as the saying goes "The worst of times are the best of times and the best of times are the worst of times". So as long as you can see beyond the obvious, I think there is a lot that can be done.

But poetry aside, you have a point. Investment banking is in a bad shape. But the point is : Anyone applying now would probably be joining in FAll 2009 and then starting job in Sep 2011. But then the situation should be a lot better.

So is it correct to plan your career by looking at current market ? After all very few people applying in 2005 could have guessed that something like this would happen to investment banking sector.

I am not / never was interested in Investment banking. I am a Tech guy. But I am interested to know if it is actually useful to plan your future job based on the current market. At least for the tech sector 3 years is a long time to perdict anything. Everyone was after IT in 1999. In 2000 the bubble burst, but by 2003 the situation was much better again.

So what strategy should one have ?

P.S. Sorry for taking the discussing away from your topic.

assuming that most finance/i-banking ppl that apply to b-school have work experience, i doubt the wall street crisis will hurt them in their admissions process. however, it may the impact those ppl just getting out of b-school since there are less jobs floating around. recent grads may have to take jobs they didnt have in mind or see themselves doing...

i myself have experience in finance and im still not discouraged from applying to b-school. i was around the street during the tech boom and 9/11 and yeah there were ppl getting let go, but within months we were hiring again...in times of turbulence there will be a need for damage control and mgmt will need to implement new strategies. for example, there's been a decline in opptys in equity research (its a crock of ****), but there was a slight uptick for more risk mgmt or derivatives research. there are always pockets of oppty within finance. so in sum, although there will be a decline in certain jobs bc of this crisis...other opptys may present themselves and ppl will still find new digs...

Thank you both for your input. I look forward to hearing from others on this topic.