Over the past 4/5 weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time having conversations with senior people in the audit space, which has really helped me get a sense of the market and peoples plans for 2021.
Summary
Internal Audit Recruitment is always a little slow during the start of the year, as bonuses are paid throughout the quarter and this year especially, a lot of audit plans seemed to spill over into this year – so focus was rightly elsewhere.
The Insurance industry was virtually dormant for 12 months from April 2020, but as Q2 began, I noticed a lot more roles come to market as Insurers confidence has clearly increased as we head towards that magic date of June 21st, 2021 – where life hopefully returns to normal!
Within Asset/Investment Management, there was movement at the likes of Blackrock, Vanguard and Morgan Stanley IM all recruiting externally and also engaging with agencies which is positive to see. We will continue to see smaller IM’s bring IA functions in-house as they grow in AUM and look for that one person to head up and grow out the function moving forwards.
Within the Banking space, Citi and MUFG have continued to recruit actively across a variety of areas, and I believe as we go through the year, these two will be the main banks recruiting. The likes of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley continue to remain quiet and it looks like that will continue as we move through the year.
The General Consensus
We all know that it has been quiet for some time now, with pockets of recruitment, but not as much as a lot of people would like. The general message I picked up from my conversations is that there is a huge desire to move on to a new challenge/company/role.
The phrase I am hearing from nearly everyone I speak to is “I’m not actively looking, but open to hearing about interesting opportunities” – which makes sense in a quiet market.
This means, more than ever, it’s important to stay close to recruiters like myself in order to make sure that when those opportunities do come to market, you are being informed. It also shows that the appetite is there for people to move around, and inevitably, the job supply will increase, and movement will do so too.
I have colleagues who cover Front Office roles and they have never been busier. Again, the message I’ve received from contacts in the Bulge Bracket banks is that their performance, during a very testing year, was actually very good.
With all this in mind, recruitment will naturally filter through the bank and I would expect the Internal Audit market to significantly pick up and receive investment. As always, my diary remains open if you would like to have a chat! I would be really interested in hearing your thoughts on this and also whether there are any roles in your team that I could offer support on, now or later in the year.
Get in Touch
Michael Judd
michael.judd@goodmanmasson.com
+44 (0)207 019 8892
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