The ideal graduate recruit for Deutsche Bank now

Deutsche Bank has outlined what makes an ideal graduate recruit now – female, with a technology degree.

Technology recruits are now a bigger proportion of the total graduate intake at Deutsche Bank than ever before. 23% of the 2016 graduate intake at Deutsche Bank went into technology roles and – surprisingly in a sector short on female talent – 40% were women, according to its new human resources report.

Deutsche has made a renewed push to hire more graduates this year despite the cost-cutting elsewhere in the bank. It took on 813 new analyst hires last year, up from 766 in 2015 and 577 the year before.

These hires are not investment banking specific and include the German retail bank and other Deutsche units. The big growth is down to an increase in technology recruits, who accounted for 27% of this year's graduate intake - or 219 people. The bank is even changing the way it finds these new hires – now choosing to reach out to them directly on social media to uncover students who might not of thought of working for a bank.

Deutsche Bank still has a global recruitment freeze in place, but technology is an area of the bank that’s excepted from this. Technology can, of course, provide a competitive advantage for banks, but it’s also a cost-cutting exercise. Last year, deutsche announced plans to streamline its technology systems under its head of operations Kim Hammonds.

Deutsche is also hiring in a big way within its innovation labs. It has one in Berlin, London and Silicon Valley, but has just launched another in New York which will explore artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cyber-security. It hired Elly Hardwick as head of innovation late last year to work with fintech companies and the bank’s own divisions on new technology.

Technology talent is highly-contested and banks have sought to gain an edge over large tech firms like Google and Facebook by hiring in more people at the graduate level. Goldman Sachs said that 37% of the new graduate hires this year were studying STEM subjects and that it was specifically focused on bringing “science and engineering skills into the firm” as it hires ever-more people into tech roles.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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