Technology jobs: Only perfect candidates need apply
Faced with a bounty of candidates to choose from and more restrictive headcount increases, financial firms are holding off hiring technology staff until they find the perfect recruit.
The latest salary survey by financial technology recruiters the JM Group suggests that pay has remained static for IT staff going into 2009, but that banks are only taking on the strongest candidates in the market.
"Where demand over the past 2-4 years has been high, clients have accepted candidates that have met between 70-80% of the job requirements. However in today's market only the 100% candidate will suffice," says Alan Bawden IT director at the JM Group.
Paul Elworthy, associate director, IT banking and finance at recruiters Hudson, agrees that banks are expecting more from their new hires.
"The perception is that because of the increasing number of redundancies, there's a greater pool of talent at their disposal, and firms want more for their money," he says. "However, I don't think they're entirely unrealistic, and they become more flexible the longer the recruitment process takes."
And although candidate applications remain higher than normal, it seems that unless they're being forced out of an organisation, most financial techies are reluctant to move.
Bawden says: "Unless individuals are being put at risk, most IT professionals feel that changing jobs in today's market is a gamble."
In spite of tumbling job numbers in the financial sector as a whole, the JM Group reckons pockets of hiring activity exist predominantly in equities, fixed income and FX.
Read on for Q4 2008 salaries (not including bonus):
Project managers
Project development managers: Associate - , Senior (VP) 85k
Programme managers: Associate 70k, Senior (VP) 85k
Project managers with financial product knowledge: Associate 75k, Senior (VP) 90k.
Architects
Technical architects: Associate 75k, Senior (VP) 95k
Data/information architects: Associate 65k, Senior (VP) 85k.
Business analysts
Front-office business analysts (vanilla products): Associate 70k, Senior (VP) 80k
Front-office business analysts (exotic derivatives): Associate 75k, Senior (VP) 90k
Back-office business analysts (settlements and reconciliation): Associate 65k, Senior (VP) 80k
Business analysts (compliance/MiFID): Associate 65k, Senior (VP) 80k
Data analysts: Associate 55k, Senior (VP) 75k.
Developers (with financial product knowledge)
Java (core Java, J2EE): Associate 65k, Senior (VP) 80k
.NET/C#: Associate 55k, Senior (VP) 70k
C++ (Microsoft/Unix): Associate 65k, Senior (VP) 85k
HTML/JavaScript: Associate 45k, Senior (VP) -
Excel/Access VBA: Associate 55k, Senior (VP) 75k.
Databases (DBA/Dev)
Sybase DBA: Associate 60k, Senior (VP) 75k
Sybase developer: Associate 70k, Senior (VP) 75k
Oracle DBA: Associate 60k, Senior (VP) 75k
Oracle developer: Associate 65k, Senior (VP) 75k.
Systems administrators
SUN Solaris: Associate 55k, Senior (VP) 75k
HP-UX: Associate 50k, Senior (VP) 70k
NT: Associate 50k, Senior (VP) 70k.
Support
Applications support manager: Associate - , Senior (VP) 90k
Trade floor support: Associate 55k, Senior (VP) 65k
Windows server support: Associate 55k, Senior (VP) 65k
Desktop/market data support: Associate 50k, Senior (VP) -
Web systems engineer: Associate 55k, Senior (VP) 65k
Front-office applications support: Associate 55k, Senior (VP) 70k
Back-office applications support: Associate 50k, Senior (VP) 55k
Network support engineer: Associate 45k, Senior (VP) 60k.
Source: The JM Group
