Prospects Bleak as Ex-PM Hits Unforgiving Job Market

All the excitement over the appointment of a new government has drawn attention from another, even more intriguing top-level Hungarian HR question: what will happen to poor Péter Medgyessy, who until last week was Hungary's prime minister, and who now is just another out-of-work, middle-aged former manager with a familiar face and a fancy c.v.? To get a better idea of the former world leader's prospects, we consulted Kevin Nejedly, the group managing director of Source Executive Recruitment, a high-end regional headhunting firm. According to Nejedly, Medgyessy's value on the local job market comes down to one word: contacts.

"The only way he has value is if he has contacts with people who make decisions that can make money for companies," Nejedly explains, gingerly. "There are certain people who make decisions that can be worth a lot of money for companies, and that's why they hire these former government people."

For example, Nejedly says, a government agency may need to purchase Ft 1 billion worth of computer software. The contract-rich former government guy goes in, persuasively explains the benefits of his company's software, and before you can say "conflict of interest" a deal is cut. "But I don't think Medgyessy could pull it off," Nejedly adds.

But how could a man who just last week had his finger on Hungary's nuclear button - well, that is, would have had his finger on the button, if Hungary had one - this week not even be qualified to flog software? The answer, again, is connections: Medgyessy made a mess of his relationships with the new crowd while on the way out, while the new crowd is likely to be old news after the next round of national elections, slated for spring 2006.

"If I had his c.v., there's absolutely nothing I could do with it," Nejedly says.

So how much could Medgyessy make had he not burned his bridges with the current government, and if his friends in the government seemed set to stay in power for longer than just 18 months? According to Nejedly, such external relations types generally gross around Ft 1 million a month, in addition to such perks as a company car, phone, and other benefits. Nothing too spectacular, when you consider that this is before roughly 40% in income taxes, but better than the PM's official salary, which we hear is around Ft 600,000.

There are of course other traditional post-politician paths that may be open to Medgyessy, but these also don't seem likely to be so lucrative. "Medgyessy doesn't have a promising career as a motivational speaker," Nejedly says, pointing out that the former barely speaks English - he instead chose to learn Russian, Romanian and French - and unlike former Czech President Václav Havel, has no international profile to speak of. "Even in Hungary people really don't know him."

It also seems unlikely that Medgyessy would want to go back into banking - he was CEO of Italian-owned Inter-Európa Bank between his most recent stints in government - at least not at the local level. Instead, it seems more likely that he would angle for a cushy job at one of the big multilateral financial institutions, like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (which took in former PM Miklós Nemeth after the communists were booted out of power) or the World Bank (which took in former Finance Minister Lajos Bokros after the former communists came back to power and used the magnificently mustachioed Bokros as a sacrificial lamb to draw attention away from the pain caused by their program of economic austerity). But these days even the multilaterals are starting to get choosy about whom they hire.

In any case, after a long career as an eager careerist under both of Hungary's recent regimes, Medgyessy has probably saved enough to be able to go home and sulk for a few years. "He's got a lot of money, says Nejedly. "Financially he is fine."

Of course, money is not the only reason people work. Medgyessy, who will be 62 the Tuesday after next, probably wants some final challenge before going up or (more likely) down to that big place where former Communist apparatchiks-turned-bankers-turned-Europoliticians go. We suggest that, after his long and varied career - which also included spells as a spy and a "business consultant" - maybe he should just get a regular job like everyone else.