eFinancialCareers

With banks only recently dishing out big bonuses, the next downturn may be the last thing on your mind. But is this really wise? It wasn’t that long ago that economists were predicting there would be a slip in 2007, and some bankers may be wondering how long the good times will last. The word from recruiters is that if you’re on the debt side of the employment ledger, assessing credit and... Read more

Macquarie Bank, Australia’s biggest recruiter in the banking and financial services sector over the last few years, doesn’t expect to slow down its hiring boom at all in 2007, although it does admit that competition for staff is toughening up. The Sydney-based bank has added another 1,200 staff in the past 10 months, taking its total to 9,400, nearly double the number of just three years ago. Its international numbers have quadrupled... Read more

Australia’s banks are trying to make new recruits feel at home as quickly as possible, for fear of losing them to homelier rivals. It’s known as ‘onboarding,’ according to Trevor Bradley, regional director of the recruitment firm Chandler Macleod, and is intended to convince new hires they’ve made the right choice. How can you tell if you’re being onboarded? Bradley says the process is all about integrating new employees into an organisation’s... Read more

Do you want next year’s bonus ahead of time? Hiring banks are said to be increasingly willing to buy out the bonuses of the staff they’re hiring. Given that US banks have only just paid out their bonuses, it may be a little early in the year for US bank employees to have their bonuses bought out for the whole of 2007. But if you work at the likes of Mitsubishi... Read more

If you’re a chartered accountant with two to six years’ experience in transaction services or audit, the world – at least, the Australian corporate finance market – is your oyster. There is a huge shortage of corporate financiers in Australia, from junior through associate to associate director. Many of the analytical skills sought are found in the chartered accountancy firms – which can’t compete with the cashed-up investment banks. “Accountancy gets... Read more

Australia’s booming private equity scene is giving leveraged financiers more leverage than ever before when it comes to negotiating huge packages. Demand for leveraged finance experts is surging, fuelled by a seemingly endless pipeline of takeovers and mergers requiring teams of investment banks to get them over the line. “The private equity market has been pretty buoyant over the last couple of years, and as a result of that there’s a lot... Read more

Professional women who have chosen to opt out of the workforce to have children have long wished they could ease themselves back into professional ranks through part-time or short-term consultancy work. It seems that employers in the financial services sector are finally coming to the party. Ben Derwent, managing director of recruitment firm Derwent Executive, says banks and accountancy firms, in particular, are looking to bring in people on a short-term... Read more

What do you do once you’ve scaled the public service, been governor of the Reserve Bank, a government minister, a state premier? Growing daffodils doesn’t do it for alpha males. But going into an investment bank as a director or consultant does very nicely. On 5 March, Goldman Sachs JBWere appointed Ian Macfarlane, former governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, as a senior international advisor. Two months earlier, it appointed... Read more

Oz banks are tuning in to the need to woo different generations of staff in different ways. St. George Bank, one of the country’s largest retail banks, is among those pandering to generational idiosyncrasies. It recently unveiled an enhanced set of benefits tailored for its Generation X, Y and Baby Boomer employees. Who got what? For Generation X, said to be those born between 1961 and 1978, there was extended parental leave,... Read more

Tied in to your existing employer? You’re not alone. A survey conducted by Ernst & Young has found leading employers are opting to defer the payment of short-term incentives such as bonuses in a bid to keep their best executives for longer. The survey found that 40% to 50% of larger companies, including banks and financial services groups, were now likely to defer bonuses – which in the case of leading investment... Read more

Derivatives jobs in China’s financial markets are set to boom this year, with salaries in Shanghai already matching those in other Far Eastern financial centres. Buoyed by the new interest rate benchmark mechanism and the expected launch of China’s first index futures contract, expertise is likely to be drawn from Hong Kong and Singapore. Dennis Koh, managing partner of Goshen Staines Singapore, an executive search firm, says pay in Shanghai is... Read more

Fluctuating stockmarkets might be fortuitous for equity strategists, who advise traders on the future direction of the market. But their star – in terms of jobs and pay – hasn’t risen yet. Edmund Gill, executive business director at recruiter Hays, says there is always demand for strategists, and the recent gyrations of global stock markets haven’t made much difference. "Everyone’s looking for direction – there is so much hunger for future... Read more

Babcock & Brown have taken the art of incentive payments to a new level. Bonus payments for senior executives often reach two thirds of total rewards, or possibly for the occasional individual. In 2006, however, Babcock appears to have established a new benchmark of at least 90% for its senior executives – and recruiters say other employers are taking note. The company’s annual report reveals that all the investment bank's senior... Read more

London’s calling – and Australians are answering. Walk into any London finance, law or accountancy firm and you’d think you were in Bondi. Research from London-based recruiter Joslin Rowe shows the supply of skilled financial professionals is outstripping demand in London with 10 jobs to every four candidates. It found that 25% of all corporate finance and M&A lawyers in London are Australians or New Zealanders, and says there are 5,000... Read more

Australian banking executives are retiring in their droves, creating opportunities for younger bankers to fill their shoes. Macquarie Bank, for instance, has lost a clutch of senior types in recent months, including its deputy chairman, its executive chairman and its treasurer. Their exit was partly down to restructuring and partly down to a government decision to remove the limits on superannuation deposits this financial year – making now a good time... Read more

There’s nothing better than cash in the hand – or at least a big fat bonus. A survey just conducted by Hays found that two thirds of respondents prefer a high cash component in their salaries these days over non-cash benefits. That compares with 42% who said they preferred cash when the survey was last conducted in April 2006. Matthew Gowan, senior manager of Hays Banking, says the candidate shortage has resulted... Read more

Australia is Asia-Pacific’s most popular target for mergers and acquisitions and now ranks ninth in the world, with recruitment activity matching the money. “We’ve been run off our feet for some time,” says Victoria Biggs, M&A specialist at Jon Michel Executive Search. “Banks at the top end of the market are picking off people from the medium-tier firms. Medium-tier firms are more likely to consider those laterally entering the industry from... Read more

Will Barclays acquire ABN AMRO or won't it? Even if it does, Australian jobs are likely to be unaffected. ABN AMRO is by far the bigger of the two banks in Australia and New Zealand, with about 700 people on the ground. Barclays, by contrast, has fewer than 100 employees, mainly spread between Sydney and Melbourne. There's little overlap between the two in terms of operations. ABN's primary focus is on corporate... Read more

Want to work somewhere else? Seems like banks are only too happy to oblige. It's all part of the war (and we're talking brutal hand-to-hand combat here) for Australian finance talent. OK, so Australia is short of financiers, but banks' thinking seems to be that they'd rather put someone out to pasture somewhere else for a few years than see them skip the fence to work for a rival. Erica Burmeister,... Read more