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If there’s one thing that the latest iteration of the financial crisis has bred in Irish candidates looking for their next career move, it’s a willingness to take risks, and this is manifesting itself in a new-found desire for contract positions.
Permanent positions do exist, but they’re becoming a minority. Long sign off periods, official hiring freezes and a need to keep recruitment budgets flexible has seen an increase in temporary and contract roles over the last six months.
Two years ago, if we’d presented a temporary or contract opportunity to most financial services professionals, it would have been greeted with scepticism. Now, most are viewing it as a genuine opportunity.
Yes, it’s a risk taking a contract role, but there’s been a big increase across various sectors including banking and funds as well as more administrative roles like payroll, financial reporting and mortgage arrears. The biggest increase has been for accountants, however.
There’s still an over-supply of recently qualified accountants in the Irish market, compared to the relatively few permanent positions on offer. Increasingly, therefore, accountants are being offered contracts of anything between 6-11 months, across financial analysis, internal audit and compliance.
The benefits of taking a contract role for the candidate are twofold. Firstly, on average you can earn 5-10% more than an equivalent permanent position. Secondly, and this is the biggest selling point, it’s a great way to gain a lot of experience quickly.
Through taking on a series of different contract roles, candidates are gaining an array of skills. This means that (after a period of time contracting) they’re able to start a new role and make an immediate impact on an employer, and therefore more firms are vying for their services.
More clients are also taking a ‘try before you buy approach’, and converting contract positions into permanent if the candidate measures up.
However, for those happy enough to stick with the more lucrative contract route currently, you can be sure your services will be in demand when the permanent market picks up again.
Erica Skelly is principal consultant, financial services, funds and banking at Careers Register in Dublin, which is part of the CPL group
Re “try before you buy approach” – in the case of a permanent job you are on 6 months probation in any case so that’s not really true for employers offering contracts. It’s just employers offering contracts because they have the market power to do so – plain and simple.