FREE online workshop - Mature jobseekers: how to use your experience to your advantage

Do you feel your years of experience are holding you back in your job search?

If so, don’t miss our next online career workshop where we’ll give practical advice on how to succeed in your job search including:

• Structuring your CV;
• The types of roles to consider;
• Keeping up-to-date with technology;
• Key interview tips.

We will also be welcoming Martin Lloyd-Penny from Mature Accountants to answer your questions throughout the workshop.

This is a FREE workshop available to members and non-members of Workthing+ and is taking place tomorrow (Thursday 28th January) at 1pm GMT.

Click here to register for tomorrow’s FREE online career workshop. Spaces are limited, so reserve your seat now.

See you there!

Finance Graduate jobs - what does the future hold?

For the last decade, careers in finance have been synonymous with fantastic salaries and what some would describe as obscenely generous bonus schemes, quite enough to compensate for the long hours and high levels of stress involved.

But with the economy in turmoil, and the finance sector being hit hard by redundancies and loss of annual bonuses, are the younger generation dissuaded from entering this sector? Is the skills shortage we’ve seen increasing in recent years set to deteriorate further as graduates decide that finance is not for them after all?

GAAPweb has witnessed a shift in the types of jobs and sought-after specialisms advertised on the website. Just as you’d expect, in the climate that we currently find ourselves in, there are winners and losers. So whilst we’re seeing fewer banking jobs we’re seeing an increase in compliance and risk roles.

Kay Saunders, Client Director at Alexander Mann Solution (a recruitment process outsourcing firm), has indicated that her large investment bank clients are certainly placing more emphasis in recruiting for back office positions like risk management instead of their traditional trading floor focus. 

Kay also handles her clients’ graduate recruitment schemes and reports that her clients are maintaining the number of graduates required. Also encouraging is the fact that application rates for graduate schemes remain healthy and all places for 2008 have been filled. So here is evidence then that the credit crunch has not impacted on this year’s graduates.

This complements figures from the Association of Graduate Recruiters Survey 2008 published in October, which indicates that just over half of graduate recruiters are maintaining the number of placements available for 2009 whilst a third are predicting an increase. Encouragingly there are as few as 0.4% of respondents who will not be recruiting for graduate placements next year.

An interesting trend to appear recently is an increasingly flexible approach regarding entry requirements for graduate schemes. Whereas in past years graduates wouldn’t even be considered unless they have 2:1 degree, now we’re finding employers placing more and more emphasis on work experience to complement educational achievements.

Neil Owen, Director of Robert Half International, believes this shows employers are recognising the importance of aptitudes that can’t be measured in examinations. Gaining work experience, industry knowledge and building networks allows employers to identify the entrepreneurs of the future, and that’s what employers are looking to invest in.

So whilst current volatility is bound to make some undergraduates think twice, we haven’t seen a fall in the graduate market place. It is clear that recruiters/employers and the media must work together to send a message to all those on the brink of making their first steps in career choices. It’s a message that the economic downturn won’t last forever and that opportunities for finance professionals in the future will remain.

Switch on to the possibilities of the energy sector

5,000 jobs were lost in banking with the collapse of Lehman brothers, more are expected with nationalisation of Bradford and Bingley. As the financial crisis continues it seems that “recession-proof” jobs are increasingly difficult to find.

Yet as petrol prices remain high and environmental concerns are hot topics, oil companies continue to generate large profits. Companies in this sector are reacting by recruiting the highest level of candidates on the market. Is this where you should be focusing your attention?

Did you know that coal production in the UK is once again on the increase? So much so that a Hatfield colliery, which closed in 1994, was recently reopened?

Well if you’re an aspiring Finance Analyst, it’s probably worth some investigation. Business analysis in the energy industry is critical and delivers effective and innovative financial services as well as supporting manufacturing, production and retail. Good analysts identify cost-saving ideas, revenue growth opportunities, and strategies for productivity improvements.

If you want to be a truly successful analyst you need to learn the art of forming insightful conclusions in real terms rather than simply extracting the facts and figures. Great Finance Analysts tell the story behind the data. If your ambition is to progress to Chief Financial Officer, you need this skill more than any other.

If you’re preparing your CV for applications of this nature make sure you show that you understand the value of acquainting yourself with business - ledgers, sales, inventory etc. This will allow you to identify the limitations of the data and in turn to recognise the importance of what you’re reporting on.

A recruiter will be keen to hear about this perspective and will want you to spot where process improvements can be made. In your interview illustrate specific examples of gaining insight from taking a step back and applying a fresh look to existing processes. If you’re really going to stand out from the crowd you need to be the candidate that thinks like an entrepreneur.

A solid understanding of the company's products and the energy markets is also vital. This will provide insights into the components of revenue and expense that should be analysed. You must prove yourself capable of anticipating how changes in the industry or economy will affect a business and realise the impact of competitor or government actions and changes in OPEC policies.   

If you don’t have sector specific experience, demonstrate that you’ve done your research and that you understand these core concepts. Wherever possible draw comparisons with the markets that you do have experience in.

The office of National Statistics reports that the contracting arm of the oil and gas sectors will weather the downturn and remain as robust as ever. Contractors offer employers flexible, highly skilled people at very low risk and relatively low cost. This could be an important factor to consider if you’re looking to break into a new sector.

Job application frustration - recruiters, it's your chance to reply!

We've had some feedback from one of our subscribers about a frustrating experience with a recruitment company. Can any recruiters out there tell us what really happens to all those CVs submitted by candidates? How can bizarre errors like the one below happen? We'd be interested to hear from you...

"I do not always have great experiences with (recruiters) and I would welcome a few tips for how to deal with them.

Just an example, I found a job which was a potential “dream job” for me. I contacted the recruitment firm to get more information before applying. The job sounded like one which completely matched with my background and the recruitment firm was happy to send my CV to the client.

As I had contact with the recruitment firm earlier the CV was already available in their database. I double checked when they received my CV to make sure it was the latest version.

Next day I got a call from the recruiter who asked me why I had a break in my career and what did I do for those few months. Their client wanted to understand what had happened with me.

I explained to the recruiter that I did not have a break in my career as he could see from my CV. Two weeks later I called the recruitment firm to follow up. It has been more than a month now and no information at all.

So regardless of the effort we put into writing up CVs, cover letters and following recruiters' advice on application what else can we do to avoid situations like that? I would really like to read recruiters' opinion on this topic."

Speed networking triumph

Hello

I just wanted to thank everyone who came along to our Meetup in Farringdon last night. We thought the evening was a great success and were so pleased to see such a great turn out.

For those of you who didn't come I'll explain...
Our Meetup group "Accountants working in London" met last night for an evening of "speed networking". We had three zones each with two or three experts and guests could come and chat to an expert for a 10 minutes. Our three zones were recruitment, web and accounting.

I'd also like to thank our panel of experts for their time and for providing so much useful information to our guests, we had some great feedback on the night and I'm sure everyone who chatted to you feels a little clearer about things now. So our thanks go to Rob Baker from Martin Ward Anderson, Paul Dipple from the Temporary Division at Robert Half, Paul Strong from the Permanent Division at Robert Half, Mehul Patel the Financial Controller for HotOnline, Andrew Wigram the Finance Director for Trinity Mirror and Mhairi and Melissa from GAAPweb.

Encouraged by our success we will definitely be holding another Meetup in the middle of next month. We're keen to think of something new for you so if there's a particular topic you'd like to know about please let us know. We could organise for a speaker to come in and talk to you or have another speed-networking session. Let us know what you'd like.

We also want to hear how we can improve on last night's Meetup, it's a new thing for us so we want to keep improving it and you're the best people to tell us how to do that, so don't be shy. You can email me at nicola@gaapweb.com or leave a comment below.

Is "newly qualified" discriminatory?

Hi, I'm Nicola the Website Manager at GAAPweb. You haven't heard from me on this blog before but I've finally been enticed into writing because of an issue that has been raised for the umpteenth time in our office and I'd really like to get your opinion on it.

This is an unusual issue because it affects everyone we deal with, that is both finance professionals and recruitment consultants alike.

The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 - SI No 2006 / 1031 - came into force on 1 October 2006. Protecting job-seeking candidates from age discrimination is no doubt a worthy cause and one which I whole-heartedly support, or at least, I do in theory.

The problem I have is that the guidelines for advertisers and recruiters are incredibly vague and I looked in vain for some well defined rules to stick to.

Acas' advice is pretty sensible: avoid specifying a number of years' experience, where possible refer to skills that need to have been developed and only mention qualifications if they are essential to the role.

Where do you draw the line?

Organisations have reacted in different ways. There are those that live in fear of the individuals we're warned about that scour the recruitment industry for job descriptions and interviews processes that contravene the rules in some way. On the other hand, some organisations appear to be unconcerned and seem to have made little effort to comply with the new rules.

At GAAPweb our policy is to remove obvious discrimination and specific numbers of years' experience. Then, in May, at the request of some of our clients we took the decision to remove the term "newly qualified" from our site.

What do you think?

I have my own opinion but as a Biology graduate who's worked in media for the last 5 years I don't feel that I'm the authority on this! And that's where you come in...

Recruitment Consultants! Are you afraid of being sued, or is removing useful adjectives such as "dynamic" and "enthusiastic" just taking things too far?

Accountants and others in the finance profession! Do you think "newly qualified" is a legitimate way of describing skill sets only gained through experience or is it in fact discriminatory?

So what are we going to do about it?

Well for a start, we want to settle the debate in our office and ensure we're employing the right editorial policy!

I think there's a distinct possibility that your collective opinion may rule that, certainly in the accounting profession, there are grounds to define what terms may or may not be used. I feel strongly that the focus of the employment equality regulations should be to protect and help people rather than create bland job descriptions that people are afraid to expand upon.

SO TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!