The ‘Siren Song’: Career Transition of Financial Market Professionals

Objetive: the purpose of this study was to analyze the career transition of financial market professionals who gave up formal employment contracts with major banks to pursue an autonomous career in the same sector. Theoretical approach: the literature on flexible work and career transition in contemporary times served as the theoretical foundation for the study. Method: a qualitative study was conducted with 17 workers who voluntarily made this transition. The data were analyzed using categorical content analysis. Results: the results showed that the prospect of working more independently and obtaining higher earnings was the main motivation for the transition, also fueled by dissatisfaction with the bank of origin. Additionally, participants’ assessments of the outcomes of the transition indicate growing dissatisfaction. In other words, those who have been working as independent agents for a longer period tend to be more critical of the process than those who changed more recently. Conclusions: the growing dissatisfaction observed among participants suggests that there is a ‘siren song’ associated with this transition. The evidence also points to a process we refer to as XPtization, associated with the precarization of work in the Brazilian financial market, along the same lines as Uberization, a term coined to illustrate the precarious conditions experienced by workers linked to digital platforms.