The jobs you should be able to stroll into this year
Good news - as the (admittedly promotional body) City UK suggested during an effusive conference in Edinburgh, Scotland's financial services industry is growing again.
And about time too. However, while most recruiters agree that job numbers are on the up again, this expansion is not across the board. Here's where we see the main opportunities currently.
Corporate finance
After an extremely lean period over the last two years, some high profile transactions towards the end of 2010 suggested that M&A activity north of the border was coming back again.
A lot of corporate finance teams in the larger accountancy firms were slimmed down, largely due to redeployment of people into more active areas like restructuring and insolvency. This is changing.
"There's been a resurgence in corporate finance recruitment within Big Four accountancy firms and smaller institutions on the back of new deal flow," says Mark Beacom, director of financial services at Michael Page in Scotland.
Investment operations
Barclays is recruiting for hundreds of roles in Glasgow, BlackRock is bolstering its headcount by 250 and the likes of BNY Mellon, BNP Paribas, Franklin Templeton, State Street and Morgan Stanley are all hiring.
Concerns of whether Scotland has enough expertise to support this expansion aside, investment operations is a good place to work currently.
Accountancy in financial services
After a period the only recruitment for accountants in financial services in Scotland was for contract positions, banks are hiring on a permanent basis again.
"Experienced accountants didn't have much option but to accept contract positions over the last couple of years," says Mark Wilson, managing consultant at Hudson in Edinburgh. "Now, firms are recruiting for the two-five year post qualification positions offering 35-45k."
Solvency II
Despite a strong pipeline of actuarial graduates in Scotland, there's always been something of a shortfall of talent in this area.
Now, as insurance firms are forced to get in shape for the capital requirements under Solvency II regulation, this supply is becoming even more stretched. Perhaps not surprisingly, with daily rates of 1,000 on offer, more actuaries are seeking work in this area.
Risk management
The buoyancy of the risk market is not unique to Scotland, but those north of the border can thank recruitment sprees within the operational functions of new players like Tesco Bank and Virgin Money for their continuing desirability.
"New players have been building their risk teams as they expand their Scottish presence, and the regulator is driving demand in other institutions," says Scott Maxwell, principal consultant, accounting and financial services at Hudson in Edinburgh.
Business change professionals
The bulk of roles emerging from the large Scottish banks are still for business change professionals as both Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland continue to restructure.
"Change managers, business analysts, accountants and decision support are still being recruited in large numbers by the large Scottish banks," says Beacom.
