Just because Wall Street is reeling from heavy job losses and overall instability doesn't mean you should be discouraged from pursuing a career in finance. A recent Reuters report focused on the public image hit the banking profession has taken over the past year, with many people blaming Wall Street for the financial meltdown and expressing their lowest trust in corporate leaders in years. "What you'll see is an irreversible trend away from banking," one European banking professional told the news service, which also quoted author Bryan Burrough as predicting that "the image of the all-powerful Wall Street banker as master of the universe will take 50 years to recover, if ever." Another first-year banking employee told Reuters that he was not inclined to return to his profession after graduating from business school. So what's financial professional to do? For starters, there are still many jobs in demand that don't involve Wall Street. One good path to consider may be working as a financial consultant, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects to see a 37 percent jump in demand for in the coming years, in part because as the Baby Boom generation retires, workers will need help handling their retirement savings. Another field that shows promise in the current climate is financial investigators and forensic accountants.  |