Saturday 16 July 2011

A career in financial services

Financial services was the subject of the live Q&A from Guardian Careers during last week. If you follow this series then you may have participated. For those who don’t I found the blurb, posted by Alison White, surrounding the announcement very interesting.

Take the new research from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR). If you'll pardon me for glossing over the headline finding that there are now an average of 83 graduates chasing each vacancy, it was actually the sector that graduates favour most which caught my eye.

What do you think it is? Law was my first guess, because it remains a firm favourite among Guardian Careers’ regulars. But I was wrong. If you guessed IT or the third sector, you’d be wrong too. It’s financial services employers which have proved the most popular, with investment banks and fund managers receiving an average of 232 applications for every opening.
These findings aren’t a million miles away from the results of a recent survey by High Fliers Research. They too found investment banks are the most popular destination for grads this year, with 8.5% of early applicants chasing jobs within them.

My surprise that this career choice came out top stems from that, erm, small matter of the recent global financial crisis. And, understandably, applications for investment banking fell by a third during the height of the credit crunch. However there's been rather a turn-around lately, with most of the best-known City names actually back to recruiting at 2006-07 levels, High Fliers MD Martin Birchall recently told the Guardian.

So, there you have it. Financial services is back in favour and paying oodles of money to the lucky ones who actually get the jobs.


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