Thanks for the job, I'll send you a postcard

Banks in Ireland are struggling to hold on to globe-trotting fund accountants, who often leave after a couple of years to travel the world.

It seems that after two years sifting through spreadsheets, fund accountants often decide the job isn't for them and either switch careers or catch the travel bug.

Ireland's biggest fund administrator, State Street - which takes 330 candidates onto its graduate training scheme every year - says the two-year level of experience is one that they are "constantly" recruiting for, and they claim it's the same in every firm.

"We work hard to retain them," says State Street's head of business development, Gavin Nangle. "We're happy for people to take a career break, but we encourage them to come back afterwards. We might also allow them to work in one of our offices in other countries, for example. We're taking people from other country offices as well - from the US and South Africa. People want to work in Ireland."

Paul Cotter, managing director at recruiters Joslin Rowe, reckons financial services now also has to compete with more glamorous industries such as entertainment, hospitality and new media that might not have been an option in Ireland a few years ago.

He says that fund accounting has to try and shed its dreary image: "Fund accounting has to overcome the view that it can be seen as very traditional and not offering the more dynamic positions that are being offered in the new world."

The industry is heavily reliant on graduates. Last year 1,000 were hired in the fund servicing space, according to the Irish Funds Industry Association. Of the 9,000 employed in the sector, a whopping 70% were under 30.