PricewaterhouseCoopers has got 800 new jobs! At least 34 involve financial services professionals in London
You can judge whether a business is really hiring by its propensity to place very large advertisements soliciting staff in very public places. A Big Four accounting firm currently has an enormous one in Waterloo Station.
On cue, PWC has come out today and said it's got 800 new (non-graduate) jobs to fill in London and the Middle East, of which 400, at least, are in London. This is despite filling 1,750 jobs in the UK already this year, 57 having been peopled by partner-level recruits.
Were you thinking of getting out of banking and into the Big Four, now is clearly the moment.
A spokeswoman for PWC tells us most of the recruitment will be to support their consulting practice.
Accordingly, PWC's experienced candidate job site shows it has 158 vacancies in London currently, of which 28 are related to financial services consulting (given these 28 refer to 'several vacancies' the true figure may be magnitudes higher).
In addition to this, it's advertising 6 banking and capital markets roles, one of which is in a new, 'Financial Services Regulatory Centre of Excellence' in London.
Yes, ex-bankers are wanted
The spokeswoman assures us that former banking professionals are most certainly wanted for PWC's vacancies. "Our roles are very attractive to talented people working in financial services," she avers.
Stevan Rolls, HR director at Deloitte, tells us they're quite keen on financial services expertise too. "One way or another, we do quite a lot of advisory work to the banking and financial services sector. We're often interested in hearing from people who are sector experts."
About the pay
Once you get to be partner, you can do fairly nicely in the Big Four. PWC's Partners are receiving an average of 622k this year; Deloitte's are getting 759k.
Lower down, you will not be so handsomely remunerated, however. PWC's total bonus pot for London and the Middle East this year is 81m. In the UK alone it employs 15,000 people.
Lower pay may be one reason why accountants often defect to banking. One head of recruitment at a Big Four firm says that in the first year after qualifying, 25% of the ACA class typically leave.
