Equities: currently 400 jobs.The latest job was posted on 20 May 18.

Equities

Within equities there is a range of possible roles available including both front and back office. The customer-facing front office roles include the equity capital markets (ECM) team, helping the corporate client determine its needs to raise money and issuing equities in an IPO, for example. Such roles require strong communications skills, the ability to build good working relationships and have the added satisfaction of seeing each individual project right through to its conclusion and enjoying the end result.
Another key front office equities role is equities research. This involves the careful analysis of companies – including the management, the business model and crucially, the financials – to produce a recommendation as to whether each company’s stock is worth buying at the current price. The skillset required for such roles includes an ability to write, a strong understanding of what drives a successful business and the capability to decipher financial accounts. Equities research positions are available on both the sell side – for example with the big investment banks – and on the buy side, employed by the asset management companies.
As with other asset classes, there are also equities trading roles and sales roles in the front office and an array of operations roles in the back office.

The Job Market

The current equities market in terms of recruitment can be looked at in a couple of ways. On the one hand, more and more shares are being traded electronically, which makes it simpler for large numbers of shares to be exchanged at a single time, and also reduces the risk of human error. This increase in technology has meant that the number of sales and trader roles within equities has decreased in recent years. Some job seekers are now finding it challenging to get into equities without having some experience - particularly in sales, communications, and analysis - under their belts.
On the other hand, job opportunities are increasing within the IT side of equities. More and more skilled individuals with an understanding of the stock market are required to design, create, and maintain electronic trading systems. The number of opportunities within equities really depends on what section of the industry you're interested in. Check out the listings at efinancialcareers.com to see what's available.