According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 598,000 unemployed U.S. workers in January 2009, spiking job loss since the recession began in December 2007 to 3.6 million. Unemployed in August 2008, Kelly Mitchell, a financial analyst in prime brokerage sales and hedge fund consulting, expected to remain in finance. "I was exposed to all areas of hedge funds," she says, "and had done a lot of hedge fund business consulting. These were things I thought would transfer well to hedge fund marketing and investor relations management."
Despite her work experience, finance jobs haven't come as easily as she'd hoped. Mitchell, newly employed, took stock of transferable skills that she says would afford her new job opportunities outside the industry. "My experience interacting with high net worth positions in nonprofit fund development, while the skills of being client focused and getting sales results piqued my interest in advertising," she says.