Dan Gallagher’s Blog on IT Careers in Investment Banking

Don’t worry I’m going to pontificate about the state of the environment but rather take stock of how the recruitment market is behaving at the start of Q4. Traditionally, at this time of the year banks will put a freeze on all hiring while they put together budget proposals for 2007. This year has been significantly different in that most banks are still interested in hiring candidates who bring sought after skills to the table. Top tier banks will no doubt play coy when it comes to buying out bonuses but for the right candidate they’ll do what it takes. And as strong candidates are hard to come by this is happening more than ever.

It’s an interesting time of year and I don’t think we’ll see a huge amount of hiring over the next month. December on the other hand is alway’s an interesting month. Last year we had UBS start their recruitment drive and the year before that it was Barclays Capital. So who will it be this year?

Whatever happens the first two quaters of 2007 are going to be very interesting. I think we’ll see contractor rates surge in the new year and of course those banks who don’t pay out decent bonuses leave themselves open to loosing key staff.