Courting Lehman's IT contractors

Lehman's IT contractors are flooding the market, but it seems that having the ex-investment bank on your CV is no bad thing and competitors are keen to take them on.

The bank has long been seen as a technology powerhouse, having spent $1.14bn on IT in the last year. And its innovation has been highly regarded: it pioneered grid computing and was able to sell the system it developed to software vendors, for example. Being close to this creative spirit is clearly regarded as a good thing, even for contractors.

Andrew Blades, sales director at IT recruiter Anson McCabe, tells us: "Other investment banks are looking to snap up the best of what Lehman Brothers had, as contractors have either left or been forced out."

The number of IT contractors at Lehman is estimated at around 300 and, if they all leave, the market could become flooded.

Simon Walker, director of IT recruiter Project Partners, says: "Anyone who is kept on is on a fixed-term contract, but the vast majority have been let go. The volume of CVs we have has nearly trebled in the past week or so and it seems most contractors want out."

There's a danger that the IT contractor market within investment banking is beginning to sour, reckons Iain Smith, founder of IT human resources consultancy Diaz Research.

"For some months now, the prime thrust has been cutting contractors," he says. "Contractor work has suffered; to appoint a contractor you have had to justify the role as being indispensable."

Walker agrees that a lot of contractors are being turned off investment banking: "People are increasingly looking to transfer their skills to fund management, retail banking or insurance," he says.