From 2010 until well into the middle of the decade, insolvency practitioners cast off quality highly trained professionals, presumably expecting them to sit on the shelf until the next time they'd be needed! Life doesn't work like that! Most of these highly experienced restructuring and insolvency resources have moved on into new careers.
The number of trainees taken on since 2010 has also been at a very low level and only started to increase, albeit at fairly low levels, in the last two or three years. Even so, many IP firms are still refusing to take on trainees and expect their competitors not only to make the investment, but also willingly shed their newly trained staff on a whim! If you're one of the relatively small number of firms willing to train and invest, why would you let these good people go at a time when you're very busy, just because your competitor is busy too?
Insolvency is cyclical, it always has been, although admittedly in recent years the cycle has been stretched somewhat. But all businesses need to plan and invest in the long term and insolvency practitioners shouldn't be exempt from taking the advice they would give to their clients! It's time for insolvency practitioners to take a longer term view of both their businesses and the careers they offer, not just reacting to what's happening today or next week, otherwise by 2026 the shelves will again be full of redundant insolvency professionals, but who won't still be there when IPs find themselves knee deep in the next recession!
#insolvency #careers #investment
https://www.ft.com/content/237755e6-243d-4daa-a146-f99b5727a79b