Welcome to the first full week of work in 2014. Welcome too to what may be the best week of the year to put your CV about in search of a new job in financial services.
As we noted in our articles over the Christmas break, plenty of banks still have costs to cut in 2014, but at least 20 firms have announced substantive hiring plans for this year. For reasons most of you will be familiar with (bonuses, budgets), banks often front-load hiring to the first half of their financial years. Financial years in banking tend to follow calendar years, making the first and second quarters the ideal time to look for a finance job.
People appear attuned to this, and not just in finance. In recruitment circles today is called ‘Massive Monday’ reports the Times: people rush to change jobs and careers as they return to work after Christmas.
The Times spoke to Camille Charriere, a former business development manager at hedge fund LNG Capital LLP, who made the decision to quit her hedge fund job and become a full time fashion blogger around this time last year. “The hedge fund was too macho an environment and I woke up one morning and thought, ‘You should do want you want,’” declared 26 year-old Charriere, seen below in a photograph from her ‘CamilleovertheRainbow’ blog.
Those of you who don’t want to start a fashion blog and do want to find a new job in financial services may be in luck. The Wall Street Journal points out that rising long term interest rates and low, stable short term rates are creating the perfect operating environment for banks in 2014. ”You’re going to have a nice steep yield curve,” says the CIO of one wealth management firm with a large position in financial stocks. Could 2014 be the year that big hiring comes back?
Meanwhile:
Rising IPO fees are good news for UK ECM bankers. (Telegraph)
RBS, Barclays and HSBC are all losing market share in UK IBD. (The Times)
Senior Barclays bankers were going to get their pay topped up in cash, but will now get it topped up in shares to satisfy investors. (Sky)
Rothschild is making its senior bankers into partners. (Telegraph)
Brevan Howard has paid 40 people more than £100m. (Sunday Times)
The European Union’s version of the Volcker Rule will apply from 2018 and will only affect the 30 largest banks. (Financial Times)
Beware the under-staffed FCA: it may come for you at your home early in the morning, destroy your career, and leave without actually bringing any charges. (Wall Street Journal)
Gary Cottle, head of risk at RBS’s investment bank, was given a £700k bonus in 2009 but let go before it was all paid. (Telegraph)
San Francisco hedge fund is hiring a Bitcoin trader. (Zerohedge)
How to cope with returning to work after the Christmas break. (Kickstarter)