IRISH GRADUATES looking to work in the City of London need to have more realistic expectations about salary levels, a leading international recruitment firm has said.
Hays Ireland has spent the last two days recruiting on behalf of some of London’s biggest financial institutions including Barclays, HSBC, HBOS, Lloyds, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch. Senior hedge fund accountants and financial analysts were being sought among others while there were also group accountancy positions on offer.
More than 60 highly skilled graduates turned up for the recruitment in the Clarion and Conrad hotels in Dublin. Many of those were from AIB and Anglo with others coming from fund management companies.
Though the City of London went through a period of convulsion after the meltdown surrounding Lehman Brothers, recruitment opportunities have opened up again. The jobs are well paid with a newly qualified accountant looking at about £45,000 (€51,000) per annum with salaries of £55,000 up to £75,000 for those with three to five years’ post-qualification experience.
Hays managing director in Ireland, Richard Eardley, said many Irish graduates had a perception that they could earn between 20 per cent and 30 per cent more than they could do in Ireland. “That might have been the case during the boom years, but it does not hold true now.
People need to be realistic about salary levels,” he said. “The message that we are trying to get out to people is that you will earn the equivalent of what you earn in Dublin if not more, but there are good employers in London and good career opportunities with a chance to progress,” he added.
Mr Eardley said there were still employment opportunities in Ireland in financial services despite the well-publicised problems in the sector. “There is a perception out there that the jobs market in Ireland is dead. It is not,” he said.