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10 skills that finance recruiters really want now

Looking out for candidates with C#

Which skills should you be listing on your perfect investment banking CV if you aspire to find a new job in the second half of 2015?

Based upon searches on the eFinancialCareers CV database in the past month, we'd strongly suggest you cultivate an ability related to one of the 10 skills/practice areas below. These are what recruiters want, or they are at least what recruiters globally are searching for.

We've compared recruiters' CV database searches with the jobs advertised on eFinancialCareers to identify the sweetspots in each skill area.

1. C

Our top search was for the C family of programming languages - both C++ and C#.

If you're competent in C, this is how the jobs advertised on eFinancialCareers are distributed by experience (three to seven years' experience looks like the sweet spot).

2. Compliance

Our second top search is for jobs in compliance. This is hardly surprising given the big hiring happening at the likes of Citi, Deutsche Bank and elsewhere.

If you're looking for a job in compliance, this is how the roles advertised on the site are distributed by experience (there's actually a sweet spot for people with no experience).

3. Java

Our third hottest search was for Java professionals. Based upon jobs advertised on eFinancialCareers now, three to five years' Java experience looks like the sweet spot.

4. Business analysis

Next up was 'business analysis'. Again, most of the jobs here are for people with between three and five years' experience. If you are endowed with business analysis expertise, you might want to work in Asia - a disproportionate number of jobs advertised now are in APAC.

5. Product control

Product control is also hot. While product control is a popular search on our CV database, the product control roles advertised on eFinancialCareers are heavily skewed towards Asia and EMEA (Europe the Middle East and Africa). As we noted last month, Singaporean product controllers are concerned about the longevity of their roles (they're being offshored to Malaysia, the Philippines and South Africa). This is making it harder to fill product control vacancies on the island. A high proportion of product control roles (12%) are available to people with no direct product control experience.

6. Audit

Generic audit skills are our sixth most searched for CV search term. Based upon jobs advertised on the site currently, only 6% are available to people with no experience. 53% are available to people with between three and seven years' experience.

7. Operational risk

Forget market risk, as reputational risk and conduct risk become more important, banks are doing more to make sure their business practices and culture are not going to get them in trouble. Experienced operational risk professionals are in particular demand, with the 33% of operational risk jobs specifying that people have between five and seven years' experience.

8. Project management

Ranking behind operational risk, project management was our eighth most searched for CV term, reflecting banks' ongoing need for people to help them update systems and processes as they seek to cut costs. Most of the jobs advertised in project management are located in APAC and EMEA.

9. Fund accounting

Fund accountants are also hot - but only really in EMEA, where 57% of our job vacancies are in this category. The sweet spot for fund accountant hiring seems to be for people with between one and three years' experience: 58% of the jobs we have advertised are within this range.

10. Relationship management

Finally, global financial services recruiters are looking for relationship managers. Unsurprisingly, given the big private banking sector in Asia, a high proportion of the relationship management jobs (50%) actually advertised on eFinancialCareers are located in Asia. 72% of the jobs advertised on the site now are for people with between three and 10 years' experience. Inexperienced relationship managers are less popular: only 3% of jobs fall into this category.

(Photo credit: Adrian Scottow) 

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AUTHORSarah Butcher Global Editor

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