No fuss for financial sector recruitment

Leading employers’ graduate schemes are not being cut, the Boar can reveal.

After the recent turmoil in the financial markets, there have been fears among Warwick students that their graduate prospects would be affected in the financial sector.

Chris Beckett, a third year mathematics student, said: “I am worried that schemes will be cut. I have heard from other graduates that they’re not employing half as many people.”

Yet, according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters there is no reason to panic.

A survey carried out by the organisation in July found that there was no need to expect a decrease in graduate placements. In fact there was an 11.7 per cent increase on 2007 for recruitment in banking and accountancy sectors.

A spokesperson said that despite the collapse of Lehman Brothers, companies have “not been jumping to cut vacancies”. The Association has been encouraging corporations to “take a long term view, unlike during the economic downturn of the 1990s”, where “many firms cut graduate schemes to eliminate short-term costs”.

Consequently, companies in the financial sector have been left with a lack of skilled associates when they needed to expand once more.

However, there has been a tendency to cut some graduate schemes in the Corporate Finance sector. In July, Ernst & Young was forced to push placements for some graduates back until the spring, or offer them positions in other sectors due to the “fast and dramatic onset of the credit crunch”.

A spokesperson for the company said, “we have cut graduate positions in the corporate finance sector by five to ten per cent, and expect that most other recruiters will be doing the same.”

Corporate Finance represents only ten per cent of all positions offered at Ernst & Young, and the company claims the decrease in their intake has been counterbalanced by expansions in other sectors.

For some students, whilst they do not have concern for the future of graduate schemes, they do fear increased job competition.

One student who has been involved with Deloitte Recruitment told the Boar: “Graduates, who lost their jobs following the collapse of Lehman brothers in particular, are now competing against current final year students – greater demand means that the schemes are expected to fill up much more quickly.”

Within the University itself, interest in the City remains high and the City and Finance Fair is not suffering. Gill Frigerio, Acting Director of Warwick Careers said: “I haven’t noticed any changes. The City and Finance fair is fully booked again, this year. We have had only Lehman Brothers and one other collapsed bank pull out.”

For Chris Beckett in his final year, he concluded: “Inevitably, it’s going to be mixed bag. On one hand I am receiving loads of emails from recruiters, but I am also aware that many people are losing their jobs.”