Openings for auditors in corporate finance boutiques

Large investment banks' rapacious demand for junior corporate finance hires is creating problems for corporate finance boutiques, which are also hiring, but can't find the talent. Recruiters say they are lowering their standards.

''Some of the boutiques and smaller corporate finance houses are having real trouble finding people at the Analyst and Associate level, says James Heath, managing director of recruitment firm Greenwich Partners. "They are having to compromise on the kind of experience they would have demanded a year ago.''

Twelve months ago, he says all corporate finance recruiters would have demanded someone with a first or a 2.i from a top university, plus a year's corporate finance experience with a Big Four accounting firm.

While top tier banks are still equally choosy, and continue to cream off the very best, Heath says the less well known firms can no longer afford to be: "We are just beginning to see jobs being offered to people with 2.2s, non-first time ACA passes, and even audit backgrounds."

This may be good news for auditors who hope to make a leap into corporate finance, but Heath warns against taking a job in a second tier firm as a route into bulge bracket banks or private equity: "Future employers will always go back to looking at A level grades, university passes and blue chip experience on a CV."

"If you are working at PricewaterhouseCoopers or KPMG corporate finance and your long term aim is to get into private equity or a top corporate finance house, it's best to stay where you are and move from there rather than muddying your CV with a name no one has heard of," he says.