True or not, every new year feels like a fresh start, even for
eFinancial Careers, the world's leading career networking site for the financial services industry, has released their 2013 Hiring Trend Survey. For about a month (from December to January) they polled over 130 Wall Street recruiting and HR professionals from top firms around the world to get their take on this new year.
In a nutshell, Wall Streeters with 2-10 years experience in risk and tech have the best prospects. Hiring is picking up fastest in Asia and slowest here in the United States. As for salaries, expect them to stay flat or trend slightly higher.
Now for the details. Here are some more trends from eFinancial Careers:
- Hiring Priorities: Attracting risk and technology talent remains the top priority for 2013, well ahead of any other categories, as it has been throughout 2012. Also on the radar screen are sales, compliance and accounting/auditing.
- Experience Levels: Recruiting demand is anticipated to be strongest in the 2-5 and6-10 year experience brackets, up considerably compared to last year’s outlook, with opportunities for entry level positions reporting a slightly weaker outlook.
- Salaries: For new hires, the outlook is more balanced with half of respondents (52%) expecting salaries to be comparable to last year, but over four in 10 (43%) anticipating they will be slightly or significantly higher. That’s a shift from last year when the split was 56%/29%.
- Layoffs: About 16% of respondents said layoffs at their firms or their clients’ firms were likely or very likely in 2013 – an improvement from last year’s more negative outlook of 22%. But there’s less confidence this year around those predictions, with 22% saying they just don’t know.
Wall Street firms are also taking more time to find the right fit for each position, according to this survey, so make sure you're not a square peg for a round hole. Got it?
Good.