Financial Crime Salaries "I want to move jobs in 2020 - what do I need to know?"

Money is statistically very unlikely to be the catalyst for someone to leave a role (people who love their boss / job will remain in lower paying roles), but it absolutely factors into everyone's final decisions.

I am going to write this article as if I would tell a friend, because ultimately moving jobs is hugely personal, so please forgive the colloquial style going forward.

THE MARKET:

Before you move you need to look at the market. Information is power and power is money (jokes it's not - power is being kind to people, but probably not right now to you Mrs/Mr Job Hunter). There are a lot of factors which I could chat about, but below are the three big ones you need to know.

Factor 1:

In 2019, Standard Chartered, HSBC and Deutsche Bank (to name a few) have had redundancies within their financial crime functions at all levels. There were also several hiring freezes across the sector for many of the midsize firms as they grappled with Brexit, or even moved whole functions offshore.

Impact:

The people being made redundant were given option to move into new roles internally, which of course means any vacant roles in that company were then filled. This caused less roles to go out to the external market. Not only that, but this greatly lessens the likelihood these banks are going to create big headcount in FCC in the next 6 - 8 months (terrible PR at the least)

Factor 2:

In April 2019 a new regulation called IR35 comes into effect. I won't bother trying to explain that here I'll pop a Link below*. Basically it is causing most firms to either to take their contractor population PAYE (costing the contractor a lot of money), move them to perm and / or not hire anymore contractors going forward.

Impact:

So. Many. More. Candidates. If you think about how many contractors you have most likely worked with in financial crime - now think that about 80% of them are now on a job hunt, and open to perm roles. There is a lot of competition. Conversely, if the contractor decided to stay and accept the perm role, this again impacts the number of roles coming to market!

*https://www.totaljobs.com/advice/ir35-explained

Factor 3:

Brexit. Duh. I feel like I don't need to explain what this is so I'll just use an emoji here. :(

Impact:

There is less need for London to be the hub for a lot of roles. HSBC have moved big portions to Paris, many others have set up substantial hubs in Dublin. Whole product offerings are being lessened (think Deutsche Bank, Macquarie most recently). Big banks are important for the market. They are the ones who create gaps, needs or even specialisms

"OK, COOL. I STILL WANT TO MOVE"

Rightyo, I don't blame you. But, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, money most likely won't be the reason you will move.

I know money is important but so are working hours, flexitime, commute, your boss, the risk profile of what you’re doing – so many things!

I know money is important but so are working hours, flexitime, commute, your boss, the risk profile of what you’re doing – so many things!

You 100% need to be clear about these in your new job. Having an extra 30 minutes contracted hours a day, or 30 minutes longer commute can seriously impact your work/life balance. Ask around about your new boss (ask me if you like, I at least know many of their reps!).

"WHATS MY MARKET RATE?"

I am going to post below here the salary guide I write every year. This was published in Jan 2019 when we were all so full of hope for the year. Please keep in mind some salaries may have dropped from the top bracket, but particularly the day rates have dropped.

I know you won't scroll past the salary guide so I will put in here - I would love to hear comments or thoughts from the candidate side. I'm interested to know, what are you seeing? What do you do to better arm yourself for your search?

Happy hunting :)