Banks go to industry to hire in IT

The big City players are on an IT hiring spree. And recruiters say they are more than usually prepared to open their doors to IT professionals from diverse backgrounds.

One recruiter at an IT recruitment firm says Morgan Stanley are hiring an 'army' of IT staff. According to another recruiter, the bank currently has at least 160 vacancies in the sector; Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

The hiring drive is prompting banks to look for staff outside their normal stomping grounds. Banks such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan are all understood to be hiring as many second and third jobbers as possible, and that people with a telecoms or management consultancy background are favoured.

Louise Clarke, manager of banking technology at Robert Walters, says banks are particularly enthusiastic about hiring professionals from the defence and other industries where software development practices are transferable: "A lot of defence technology, which works with artificial intelligence and risk management related products, breeds good technologists with strong mathematical and technical skills sets perfect for the banking industry.

Clarke says that banks are also seeking out candidates with strong academics in subjects such as pure maths, pure physics, science and engineering.

"At the junior end, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been more open to recruiting outside the financial sector with a view of attracting individuals who are not pre-moulded," she says. "They have to take more people from outside the industry in order to growth their IT business and cater for the needs of the business."

Adrian Dobson, a senior consultant at IT specialist recruiter Aston Carter, attributes the rush of IT hiring to the increased use of financial derivatives products. "As trades become more complex, trading systems themselves need to be constantly evolved and this is fuelling significant demand for people - particularly in areas like the mortgage backed securities market," he says.

The message is clear: if you want to work in banking IT, but know little or nothing about banking, now may be a good time to get in.