The terrible truth about application ratios

Recruitment firm Morgan McKinley thinks there are around 1.6 people for every new financial services job. This may, however, be grossly understating the reality of the situation.

According to the very recently former head of recruitment at a European investment bank in London, the ratio of applicants to jobs this year has been more like 250:1.

"A couple of months ago we were receiving 10,000 CVs a month for 30 to 40 roles," he says. "At the beginning of 2008, it was more like 8,000 CVs for 60 roles."

Before you give up applying for jobs and start wearing a sandwich board, it's worth bearing in mind that these figures may also be off. They include applications for graduate positions, which are notoriously higher than those for experienced roles, plus those from a vast mass of people who fancy working in investment banking but are currently middle managers in the FMCG sector.

"Most of the applicants have no experience of financial services," says the head of recruitment. "Only around 10-15% are relevant."

This corresponds with the experiences of heads of recruitment at two US investment banks, who say the average job usually attracts 30-40 suitable applicants.

"It depends how you phrase the advertisement," says one. "If you say you don't need anything other than a college degree you can expect to be bombarded."

"It's very hard to persuade people from outside financial services that their managerial experience isn't transferable to areas like operations," says the (ex) head of recruitment. "They don't understand the stresses of working in an investment bank and the extent to which everything is driven by interaction with the front office."