A Comparison of Banking & Finance Jobs With a Look at the London Job Market
Published October 21, 2011 | 
There are some fairly major differences between the banking and finance sectors, most notably the different types of opportunities available in these related but separate areas.
Banking jobs in major cities like London tend to fall in the retail, private and sometimes boutique banking sectors. These roles comprise of dealing with transactional activities and other general banking duties. Banking positions span, front, middle and back office positions supporting the entire trade process from sales and execution through clearing and settlement. An investment banker would most typically work for an investment bank who will help corporations and businesses to raise funds in capital markets.
When it comes to finance jobs, the positions tend to involve management of assets, money and other finances. Finance Jobs often comprise of micro and macro economic analysis and include tasks and duties to manage funds and preserve and create wealth for the organisation. But putting the differences aside, job opportunities in both the finance sector and the banking sector are frequently available if you have the right skills and experience.
Here in the UK the biggest place to get a banking or finance job is London. With areas such as London city and Docklands, London is the best place to look for banking jobs in the UK. It is seen as the banking hub of the world and the largest business centre in Europe, so residents in the UK have some great opportunities available to them.
Figures shows that over 20% of the largest companies in Europe have their headquarters in London and around 25% of the largest companies in the world have their main European offices based there. The London financial exchange market is said to be worth over $500 billion which is more than New York’s and Tokyo’s combined. This has also led to there being thousands of financial and banking jobs in the city.
With a need for so many finance professionals, specialist recruitment companies like Martin Ward Anderson have been created to provide the best candidates for these finance and banking jobs in not only London, but the rest of the UK and abroad.
The Future of Finance Jobs
Published October 16, 2011 |
In the not so long-gone past, many career advisers were advising young people seeking to start out a career to go into finance. The financial markets were doing well then, finance jobs were in plenty and MBA schools were bursting with young students seeking to build a career in finance. And the finance jobs were, of course, not limited to the financial markets. With a strong economy, finance graduates who couldn’t get jobs in the financial markets and investment banks could quite easily be absorbed into commerce and industry accounting jobs. Other would get middle office finance jobs in the public service, and going was good.
Then the bubble burst.
The economy went into recession mode, the financial markets shrunk and finance graduates who had taken up jobs with investment banks found themselves facing the axe, as the investment banks are the worst affected by turmoil in the financial markets. And as if on cue, companies, in a bid to cut costs, were also cutting on their head counts, thus also shaking the fortunes of the finance graduates who found commerce and industry accounting jobs in the private sector. In the midst of all this, it seems that the only secure finance graduates are those who took up middle office finance jobs in the public sector, but even this is not fear-proof for we do not know for sure what the full effects of the economic turmoil will be on civil service staffing.
So in the face of all this, what is the future of finance jobs?
It might seem counter-intuitive to say, but the future of finance jobs is still bright, in spite of the current turmoil in the financial markets. As it were, economists tell us that the current economic turmoil is largely short-term to medium term, which is to say that it won’t be with us forever. Which means that the people who chose to pursue a career in finance need not regret their choice, as better times are coming. But even before the better times arrive, the people with finance backgrounds who are currently getting laid off might not find themselves in the cold for too long.
As governments unveil the various economic stimulus plans, there will be need for people to manage the money as it goes into various sectors – which translates to some finance jobs. Of course the finance jobs created in this way will be for the best brains in finance.
And then there is the fact that all companies, like human beings, have a native survival instinct, which they are likely to find handy in these hard economic times. One survival strategies for companies in crises is to hire the experts who are likely to navigate them through the particular crises. And since the current crisis is financial, the companies are likely to find themselves hiring financial experts to help them address the economic crisis. Of course, the companies are not likely to be overtly looking for finance experts to help them address the financial crises. What we are likely to see is an increase in commerce and industry accounting jobs, but the accountants so hired are bound to be almost exclusively tasked with cost and revenue management tasks, geared towards helping their employers sail through the turbulent times successfully.
And finally the good times will surely come back again. If the history of the financial markets is anything to go by, we know that all bursts are always followed by booms.
