Victoria Biggs, partner, Platinum Pacific Partners, gives her views on hiring in the three sectors below. 

Debt

Recruitment into debt markets has been soft for a few years now, and 2011 was no exception. In fact, by the end of 2011 many banks were making redundancies. The lack of corporate activity, or even pipeline, has continued to hit debt markets and make it an extremely competitive space. Teams are lean, and in some cases are very much understaffed. However, until activity starts to improve and confidence comes back into the market, they will remain that way.

Of course the one sector that continues to vie for talent is resources. Anyone with decent resources experience is a hot commodity. Until the resources boom slows down, this will continue. Overall I expect 2012 to be fairly subdued in debt markets, but as soon as some deals do come to light and confidence returns, we will see much more recruitment into this space than we have seen since 2007.

Equities

We are now at the start of Q2, and equity houses are still finding conditions challenging. The calendar year 2011 saw low volumes as investors avoided equity investing due to, among other reasons, global macroeconomic conditions and the high Australian dollar. This lack of volume resulted in losses for most equity houses, which of course filtered down into bonuses.

On average, total compensation for 2011 fell 30 to 40 per cent on the sell side. There were also redundancies and other forms of cost cutting, including merging of teams, and analysts having to cover more stocks with less assistance. There is also an expectation that 2012 will be another year of very little, if any, bonus. All of this has resulted in low morale, and a number of employees on the sell side deciding to retire, take a sabbatical, or totally depart from the industry.

Of course from this clean-out comes opportunity for those who remain when the markets recover. But at what point they improve is the question on everybody’s lips. Will it be the second half of 2012 or will markets remain as they are until 2013 or even beyond? No one can agree. Wish I had a crystal ball.

Investment banking

Unfortunately, 2012 has started as 2011 ended as far as recruitment within global investment banks is concerned: with a whimper. Even the resources sector, which can usually be relied upon to generate new headcount, has dried up, with freezes prevalent across most firms. ECM teams are running at the minimum to match volumes, and investment banking as a whole has been through a period consolidation that has seen numbers trimmed in late 2011 and early 2012. It is hard to say whether more redundancies will follow.

Independent advisors, however, have gone from strength to strength both in terms of seizing market share and boosting team size. Many established brands are taking the opportunity to pick up bankers from top-tier firms who have either been let go or who have decided that they wish to explore other paths. Firms that were established during the GFC are also hiring. Many of these are little known, but can offer fantastic cultures and work-life balance, with a focus on offering good client exposure and environments where ideas and entrepreneurship are encouraged. Opportunities have typically extended up to VP level, with roles for senior bankers hard to come by at boutiques and bulge brackets alike.

Watch out next week for a review of private equity, funds management and corporate development.