UK
2010 is shaping up to be the year of the analyst and associate. From our perspective, we started to notice demand for junior investment bankers coming back in October and November last year; it’s been non-stop ever since.
As M&A activity picks up, banks are almost universally looking for the same thing: top ranked analysts and associates at all levels (first years included) who weren’t cut during the downturn.
At this stage, few organisations are prepared to pay above market rates in order to attract the people they want. Nor are they willing to compromise on hiring people from lower-ranked institutions. As a result, it’s a candidate-driven market, and there’s a lack of good people willing to move.
If this continues, banks may yet relax their hiring criteria. It’s possible, for example, that if you were among the many analysts and associates who were let go from top firms, but you have an impeccable academic pedigree and a good track record, you will soon be able to get back into the market again.
Equally, it seems inevitable that at some stage banks will spread their wings and start hiring recently qualified ACAs into corporate finance positions again. Investment banking is a cyclical market, and – for the moment at least – things are definitely looking up.
Is this a fantasy scenario we typically see in the Daily Mail?
Sarah – please can we stop these articles written by faceless recruitment consultants?
@Shaz – this was originally from a named headhunter, but unfortunately he decided to pull his name before publication. If it’s any consolation, the fact that he’s unnamed may lend veracity to his claims – if he weren’t anonymous it could be claimed that he was fishing for CVs…
Lateral Recruitment Pipeline
All,
It may be an understatement to say that the workload over the past few
months has been extremely heavy and that we have all struggled to
cope.
The good news is that help is at hand as the department has received
authorisation to make a number of hires at the Analyst, Associate and
VP levels. The bad news is that we are not seeing enough strong
quality candidates.
We are turning to you and would like you to help us help you. We would
like you to get in touch with your classmates, flatmates, friends and
family who you believe are of high quality and believe may want to
join the firm. We have opportunities throughout IBD and GMSG and have
a particular interest for anyone with experience in a bulge bracket
firm and / or linguistic skills (in no particular order: Russian,
German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Hebrew speakers, amongst others).
As a reminder, there is a referral programme in place so if you manage
to refer someone successfully, you may enjoy both a lighter workload
and some extra money.
Please pass on all résumés to [...] and myself.
Thank you.
Buttlicker is definitely referring to Credit Suisse.
@ Buttlicker
I would be happy to pass on my CV as I am looking to relocate to London with focus on a corprate finance role. I have leverage finance expierence from a major European Credit Hedge Fund and currently focusing fixed income investment for an Asset Manager. In addition to that I can native German language skills as well as conversational Polish skills.
So in case you are serious about the offer, please contact me on the following email: marek_79@hotmail.com. Looking forward hearing from you.
Best regards
Markus
@Buttlicker
Let me guess, this is from Morgan Stanley?
definitely RBS i reckon…
good luck Marek…job there for sure…i would willingly send my cv ino the ether having seen that sort of letter
I’m looking for a corporate finance role but i don’t have experience in that area , which banks/firms should i be applying to ?
The investment banks say they are looking for a large amount of Analysts and Associates but I don’t believe that at all mainly because the amount of people chasing one job is astronomical. Are they telling me out of let say 10,000 applicants next to none make the grade. I don’t think so. These firms bring in a lot of politics which make no sense such as rejecting CV’s from those who come from less prestigious universities because they think if you didn’t study at those schools it means you’re not clever enough which is not true at all.
Overall I think they want already made Analysts and Associates which is why there is a demand which they won’t be able to stop as time goes on because they are loosing all their staff to Hedge Funds.