"Banks hate mercenary behaviour. Good luck if you've been demanding higher pay"

I've spent over two decades as a trader at major banks and have been a managing director for 10 years. I feel in my bones that we are due another clear-out. And when it comes, it will not necessarily be the loyalists like me that go. 

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What I have learned through observation of repeated market cycles is that when cuts happen, it's the mercenaries who are targeted first.

These are the people who jump from role to role when the going is good, always trying to bid-up, always trying to be bid-back, always trying to get more and more for their own franchise. 

This behaviour is remembered. 

When times get tough, your behaviour will remembered and will backfire on you. Your mercenary behaviour will be repaid in kind.

Banks are staffed by humans. If you want to get ahead, you need to be capable but you also need to be loyal. You need to build credibility and stay in a place through good and bad times and then you will be trusted with bigger roles. 

You can't force your progress. If you have, I fear that you are about to find this out in the bad times coming soon.

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