Surviving the great purge of 2009
The fortunes of Scotland's financial services industry are beginning to resemble those of a Big Brother contestant six months after the series has ended - from extremely high, to depressingly low.
This time last year, the talk was of a skills shortage due to rapid expansion, and now the most pessimistic doomsayers - the Ernst & Young Scottish Item Club - suggest that up to 14,000 jobs could be lost within Scottish financial services from 2009-2010.
The financial sector north of the border might be waiting with bated breath over the fallout of the Lloyds TSB-HBOS merger and just how deep the RBS cuts are likely to be, but sadly these are unlikely to be the only institutions making redundancies this year.
Faced with this unprecedented grim picture, you'd be right to be nervous. However, opportunities remain.
Where the opportunities are
Pockets of hiring still exist north of the border, but it's unlikely that any sector will continue to recruit with such aplomb of recent years.
Sectors that remain relatively buoyant are:
· Private banking/wealth management
· Investment operations
· Insolvency accountants
· Investment consultancy
In private banking, for instance, HSBC has been building up its team since setting up in May last year and Barclays Wealth continues to grow, while other new entrants include Brown Shipley, Rensburg Sheppards and Williams de Broe.
While investment operations is unlikely to continue with the astronomical levels of recruitment seen in the past couple of years, the likes of Citi, State Street and Franklin Templeton still have vacant positions.
Accountancy firms, meanwhile, have been bolstering their corporate restructuring and insolvency teams in anticipation of a raft of new business in the wake of the economic downturn.
Towards the middle of last year, there was "unprecedented turnover" within the investment consulting firms in Scotland. It seems more muted now, but recruitment is continuing within certain firms. Hymans Robertson has just hired four senior consultants, for example, most of whom came from local fund managers.
If you're out of the market
In today's market, redundancy is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon, but that doesn't make it any easier to take.
If you're out of the market, research suggests you'll start by feeling shock, denial, frustration and depression in that order. But things will get better. It can also bring willingness to experiment with new career options, acceptance of the situation, and a whole new life.
If you're already working in financial services, and you want to monitor the hiring landscape, we're here to help. If you're out of the market and want to get back in, we're here to offer advice. And if you want to apply your considerable talents to something different, we can suggest tips on where to begin.
