eFinancialCareers

Aussie banks are on the prowl overseas, picking up choice hires because the Australian market is robust and financial services is short of candidates.

Grant Chamberlain, Deutsche Bank’s deputy head of M&A in Australia, says the firm is finding it difficult to source candidates who live locally. Most of its interviewees are Australians living abroad.

“We haven't had to spend a lot of time trying to convince foreign nationals to come out here. A number of the Australians are in firms weakened by the credit crisis and believe it may be a good time to move back, because Australia is travelling better than the US and Europe right now,” adds Chamberlain.

Chris Mamas at Select Personnel says looking overseas can be problematic if the new recruits lack recent experience of the domestic Australian market. “It doesn’t matter with juniors, but it does with seniors who need established relationships to be effective.”

Victoria Biggs at Jon Michel says private equity is overcoming this problem by accommodating short-stay hires. “Traditionally, PE firms hire very long term and locally because they need people with deep local knowledge and relationships, but there are so few candidates that they’re going offshore, and even hiring people with no Australian experience, even though the projects are entirely Australian.”