A temp used to be a secretary, but not any more. Interim managers - high-powered managers with executive clout - are moving into investment banks as temporary troubleshooters, many of them former bank executives themselves.

'It's becoming increasingly easy to find work as an interim manager in investment banking,' says Richard Potez, who has worked on interim contracts in investment banking for seven years. 'Although the idea that you can pick up a temp at a high level remains beyond the grasp of some banks, others are seeing the benefits more and more clearly,' he says.