Job prospects improve for junior corporate financiers
Job prospects may be improving for junior corporate finance staff. Headhunters say there has been an increase in demand for analysts at investment banks in the UK. This is borne out by job advertisements, six of which are seeking staff with between six and 24 months' corporate finance experience.
This time last year there was little evidence of such demand. The renewed interest stems from a combination of limited hiring of graduates since 2001 and redundancies among existing graduate trainees, headhunters say.
Jonathan Beall, consultant at recruitment firm Shepherd Little, says banks are waking up to a shortage of junior staff who do much of behind-the-scenes work on deals.
He says: "At most firms, there is a middle-heavy structure. There are plenty of senior analysts and vice-presidents but none of the junior staff who support the originators."
Thomas Nalder at Finance Professionals, a recruitment firm hiring analysts for Nomura, says: "Graduate trainee numbers have been cut massively over the past two years. People with two years' experience are difficult to find and as M&A activity picks up slightly, there are a lot of holes to be plugged."
Tracy Rolfe, consultant at recruitment firm Roberts Knight, says applicants who are in work are better placed to fill the vacancies than those who have been made redundant. However, Beall says some applicants who lost their jobs a year ago and have since been travelling are also securing job interviews.
John Axworthy at the Charterhouse Partnership, a specialist M&A recruiter, says: "There's no shortage of analysts yet but there could easily be one. It takes a whole year for banks to increase graduate hiring figures. If conditions continue to improve next year there could be a lot of banks hiring from the open market."
Second to third-year analysts are paid around 45,000 (€64,800) and a bonus. Most of the advertisements gave no pay details, though one specified salaries of between 35,000 and 42,000 for first- to third-year analysts.
