Despite the doom and gloom surrounding recent job cut announcements at some of the major investment banks, opportunities for accounting professionals in the sector have never been better.
Lorraine Traynor, Manager of specialist financial recruiter Nigel Lynnís Financial Services Division says: ìThere are always vacancies for accountants with 0-4 years post qualification experience ñ many of our clients are still playing catch up on headcount targets for quarter one and quarter two and are keen to fill vacancies before December. And despite talks of headcount freezes they are all predicting the same level of need for next year.î
Those candidates with product control, financial control, audit and regulatory experience are most in demand and with such a shortage of candidates, the sector is slowly becoming more flexible in its requirements.î
ìWhereas before banks may have insisted on an ACA qualification and financial services audit experience, we are now seeing more CIMA qualifieds being offered opportunities ñ the mindset is definitely changing - and it has to. There is still a feeding frenzy for newly and recently qualified accountants ñ I have one client currently looking for 10 product controllers and those organisations that are willing to be more flexible are those that will ultimately win the war for talent.î
Accountants still face wealth of opportunities within the city
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