Just a month ago, Sarah Gill barely had a moment to spare as an investment banker at SoundView Technology Group. Now she spends most mornings at Riverstone Farms, in Garrison, New York, practicing jumps on her five-year-old dark bay Hanoverian horse, Blink of an Eye.
The change in scenery couldn't be more dramatic for Gill, 29, who bought the horse in March 2001, flush with a bonus and upbeat about her future. That was a year before she lost her job. Now she's glad to have time to ride, though worried about her career prospects and the US$600 per month her prized possession -- nicknamed Joe -- costs to board and feed.
"I certainly wouldn't have bought something with four legs that eats if I knew what was going to happen," said Gill, who always dreamed of owning a horse. "If I don't find work by the end of the summer, I'm going to have to sell him. I'm passionate about him, but I'm not going to bleed myself dry."
Securities firms have cut 40,000 jobs in the past year, forcing many traders, bankers and analysts into unemployment in the worst Wall Street job market in 25 years. With few job prospects, some are struggling to stir up fresh leads, while others, lucky to have severance pay or low living expenses, are pursuing long-ignored dreams and passions.
"The music has completely stopped in some parts of the industry," said Larry Post, founder and CEO of Streetjobs.com, a Web site for trading, banking and other security firm positions. "Wall Street over-hires and over-fires. Right now, we're in over-fire mode."
Of the 40,000 lost jobs -- the most since Richard Nixon was president, according to the US Department of Labor -- 20,400 were in New York City.
Wall Street salaries range from US$80,000 for junior level bankers to US$8 million a year and beyond for managing directors, executive pay experts say. No matter what they make, many on Wall Street share one thing in common. They live in New York, where condominium prices average US$973,438, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc and residential broker Insignia Douglas Elliman.
Nils Nilsen was co-head of a group that helped raise financing for private equity firms at Credit Suisse First Boston until he lost his job along with 300 other investment bankers last month. For him, unemployment means the chance to spend time with his 9-year-old daughter.
"I get to drive my kid to school, then pick her up in the afternoon and take her to ice skating," said Nilsen. "It's a silly little thing, but I never had time to do that before."
Nilsen said he is confident he will land another position -- just not too soon. He aims to start a new job in September.
Meantime, he's planning a summer tour of Europe with his family.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique