Rush to the top

Retaining staff is becoming a top priority among financial services companies, which means you can now fast track your career more easily than before.

In the current environment, Jennifer Ward of Sigmar Recruitment says many big banks and fund companies prefer to promote within and will look for recruits internally before going outside.

"There's such demand for experienced candidates that a lot of companies are trying to look at the team they have," she tells us. "They want to maximise their resources internally, by training people who are interested," says Jennifer.

Nowadays, Ward says funds often tell junior candidates that depending upon a candidate's ambition and the size of the company, it takes in the region of four years to progress from junior trainee to supervisor.

A supervisor at a major fund company - who was promoted to this position last year - tells eFinancialCareers that she has noticed people progressing much more quickly now than when she started out in the industry four years ago. It is not unheard of for people to be promoted within two years of joining at the bottom level, she says.

Darren McCabe at Joslin Rowe recruitment agency has found that staff turnover in the banking and fund industry has fallen from previous levels. "People are moving, people are progressing but they're... being promoted internally," Darren says.

However a recent survey carried out by the Dublin Funds Industry Association showed that the staff turnover rate in the Irish funds sector last year was 24 per cent, with the highest level of turnover noted amongst general staff. Retention of senior staff was better, with turnover at just 12 per cent.