How to make an investment bank chase you

What if you don’t particularly want to work for an investment bank, but an investment bank really wants you to work for it? What would you ask for, and would you make outlandish demands simply to test how keen they are to hire you?

This may have been the case in Deutsche Bank’s pursuit of Stuart Kirk, former global editor of the FT’s Lex column, who joined the bank this month as ‘head of global research product’.

Journalists are occasionally courted by financial services organisations, particularly asset managers, who are keen to bring in subject matter experts to liven up their intelligence communications sent out to clients.

In the case of Kirk, he has a financial services pedigree, having worked for Deutsche’s asset management arm before switching into journalism in 2006. We’re told that Deutsche spent a good while trying to persuade him back, to the point where Kirk was essentially able to write his own job description – hence the slightly odd job title and the fact that he’s able to focus on ‘major themes’ for clients and the bank, rather than on one industry sector.

Pay may have also been an issue – we’re told that the package amounts to somewhere in the region of £200k. And, part of Kirk’s job will be looking into what sort of art Deutsche should be buying, according to our sources.

Deutsche Bank has a huge art collection – encompassing around 60,000 works – and has a team of 10 art curators in Frankfurt as well some based in its City office. One of the co-CEOs offices is adorned with ‘Untitled’ by Indian artist Anish Kapoor – an abstract canvass featuring varying shades of blue – while its London conference rooms include by Japanese photographer Miwa Yanagi.