London high-fliers choose Edinburgh as alternative

One in ten City of London workers would move to Edinburgh, a recent eFinancialCareers.com survey of 1407 financial markets professionals found. But only if they could continue doing what they love doing.

Some might say that's making money. A majority (60.2%) of respondents, however, would take a reduction in pay to keep their current roles but do them north of Hadrian's Wall. When asked how much of a cut, here is how they answered:

• 34.3% of respondents would take between a 5% and 10% pay cut
• 16.1% would take between 10% and 15%
• 6.3% would take between 15% and 25%
• 3.5% would take over 25%

For some tempted to move it's possible even to keep current packages. For senior fund managers, for example, Edinburgh is paying at London levels to attract and retain the best talent. Asset managers came in as the survey's top demographic at 13%, with investment bankers at 8.7%.

London is still the place to make one's mark, especially for young up-and-comers, and nine out of ten wouldn't want to work anywhere else. But of those willing to relocate, the under-30s topped the poll with 44.3% of the total.

The reason? Work/life balance, and that from 65.7% of respondents. Love it or hate it, the term keeps popping up. Banks say they're open to the idea, recruiters say they're not nor should they be, and employees are caught in the middle.

By way of example, in London last week one young equities syndicate banker was overheard on his mobile while getting his hair washed and cut having just been made redundant: "Yeah, just got the chop, manager said I got more excited about my ski hols than equity markets," he said. "That was the reason, never had a reprimand." And that's before his bonus was paid out.

Though there is little skiing in Scotland, there are more than a few jobs. After Edinburgh as an alternative to London, Dublin came in with 9% of the vote and New York came in with 6%.