The Big Four are hiring in Scotland. Here's who they're looking for now

Scotland's Big Four business services firms are hiring, but mainly in consultancy, and for some former employees, it may be time to move back into practice.

E&Y revealed recently that it has taken on an additional 50 people in the last year in Scotland, where it now employs over 850 people and recently moved to a new Glasgow office. Currently advertised jobs include IT service desk positions (some with languages) and marketing manager positions.

Meanwhile, at PwC in Scotland, partner Allan McGrath, told eFinancialCareers: "We expect to maintain ongoing recruitment levels, anticipating 15-20 new hires from associate to more senior positions over the next six months."

This figure is in addition to 70 graduates who have already joined and another 15 joining in the coming weeks. The firm took on 120 people between July 2011 and June 2012, including 50 experienced hires, 70 graduates and some transfers from overseas.

The new jobs will be mainly in risk, regulation and IT, and spread across the PwC offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

"Increased demand from clients in the energy sector is leading to the creation of new jobs in the Aberdeen office across all business areas, including growth areas such as corporate finance and risk advisory services," said McGrath.

McGrath stressed that the figures were an indication of recruitment intentions, rather than an absolute target.

"While technical competence is prerequisite for the jobs, the ability to build relationships and become a well-rounded advisor," he said.

Recruiters say that while general Big Four recruitment has been flat  compared to last year, there has been a rise in consultancy recruitment. In some cases, former Big Four employees who had moved out into financial services companies are coming back into practice as consultants.

John Docherty, divisional director for accounting and finance for the financial services sector at recruiter Core-Asset Consulting in Edinburgh said: "There is a trend for Big Four-trained people who had moved on into senior financial services positions and gained experience in regulation, control, senior audit and internal audit to return to the Big Four as advisory and assurance positions."

Change management and project experience gained in the financial services industry is increasingly in demand among the Big Four financial services teams, he said.

Fiona Getty, business manager, public practice, UK, at Change Recruitment Group in Glasgow said: "Consultancy is going through a growth period at the Big Four in Scotland resulting in people with senior level financial services experience in process improvement, actuarial consulting, insurance, pensions and assets are moving back into practice."

Deloitte, for instance, is offering consulting opportunities in Edinburgh for people with internal or external consultancy experience, plus a clutch of technology consulting positions

Traditionally remuneration packages in practice have been lower than in financial services for the same kind of roles, but lower bonuses in banking and financial services mean that practice roles are now becoming more attractive. One recruiter said he had spoken to candidates who had moved back into consultancy roles with the Big Four and whose pay packages "had not suffered"

Sandy McNaughton, manager, practice, Scotland at Randstad, said: "Outside of consultancy, and oil and gas specialists in Aberdeen, recruitment in the central belt is low to non-existent among the Big Four - only Deloitte is hiring. In assurance tax and transaction services there is very little."

Getty said the market was steady, but she is optimistic for the future. "My experience in the recession of 2005 leads me to believe that this period of consolidation will eventually lead to growth, but not until after 2013 is over."