England, Summer and the Financial Services Industry?

We are back people!  After taking a brief vacation from the blog in order to crack on and get some actual financial services recruitment work done, we are back and fully committed to keeping the IFA and Financial advisory world up to date with what's happening in the heady world of financial services recruitment. Actually we were really watching the World Cup but England's sad demise means we now have the time to work on the blog!

Its been a busy couple of months with a real pick up in the economy beginning to become visible.  Early 2009 there were a hugely limited amount of jobs particularly in the banking sector and if you were a financial adviser looking for a role in bancassurance, well, you had more chance of meeting an honest recruiter! Irony, I like it! Of course, I'm joking about the honesty of recruiters, there are some of us out there but in terms of the job prospects within financial services last year, they were minimal to say the least. There are still certain limiting factors within the recruitment of financial advisers and IFA's with organizations still having strict criteria and they all have the boxes that most definitely need ticking, however, there is light at the end of the tunnel and a movement towards pre 2009 levels.  Whether RDR kills that off is for another day but for now, lets just bask in the warm glow of increased profit sheets and more placements.

The economy isn't such that you can easily get into the FS industry as a new entrant just yet.  The blue chip financial institutions in particular are still looking for the 'top quartile performer' with competent status and a record of achieving or exceeding sales targets which of course means that it it is still very results orientated out there but it's something and it is definitely better than it was last year when there just weren't the jobs at all. Unfortunately this also means that the smaller regional IFA's and smaller financial organizations are also looking for financial advisers and IFA's that can hit the ground running but for those who want to look, whereas last year there was very little, this year the opportunities are there to be looked at!

We have yet to see how the budget and the recent shift in policy towards replacing public sector jobs with private sector will effect both the recruitment industry and the financial services industry and my thoughts are that you will begin to see more people beginning to look at the FS industry as a viable career choice, despite the regulation and the level of qualifications required.  this gain can only be a good thing.  So lets look ahead with renewed hope, at least for a while and lets make hay, while the sun shines!  A summer reference, good one!