Swiss Futures and Options Association
Jobs and Career Management in the Financial Markets
Post your resume

Job News & Advice

Latest articles

There were 154 front office fixed income derivative hires last year; 140 people are still out of the market. Expect to move down a tier in M&A

Two search firms have produced two interesting pieces of research: one on fixed income derivatives, one on senior M&A hires. Both are dark, with glimmers of light. Fixed derivatives income: the massive overhang of the unemployed The report on fixed income derivatives comes from search firm Nicholas Scott and is available in full here. It [...] ...Read more

By Sarah Butcher, 27 Jan 2012

Career stasis: when thousands and thousands of people want your job and you have few alternative options

Banking pays less than it used to. Bonuses are reputedly down 30% at Credit Suisse, down 25% at Bank of America, and down similarly elsewhere. This doesn’t mean people don’t want to be bankers. Bob Diamond clarified the extent to which university students still do yesterday, when he said: “Last year, we had applications from 107,000 [...] ...Read more

By Sarah Butcher, 27 Jan 2012

A Q&A with the COO of FRM Capital Advisors on what it will take to get your hedge fund seeded by them this year

Last week, hedge fund research and investment specialist Financial Risk Management (FRM) and Deutsche Bank, announced the formation of a new hedge fund seeding platform. We asked FRM COO Patric de Gentile Williams what kinds of fund they envisage investing in. Here’s the full interview: Q: How many hedge funds you expect to seed in [...] ...Read more

By Sarah Butcher, 16 Jan 2012

DAVID CHARTERS: I advocate that banks begin publishing details of their pay

Imagine how investment banking would work if not just board level people and a token handful of the highest earners had their pay disclosed, but everyone did, at least in any rump of an organisation where the taxpayer might ultimately foot the bill if things go wrong. At every bank, everyone would know what everyone [...] ...Read more

By Sarah Butcher, 13 Jan 2012

Does BarCap need to make a lot of redundancies too?

BarCap and RBS have a few things in common. They are both British banks. encumbered by the UK’s banking levy and Vickers legislation. They both have investment banking arms. And they have both engaged in building up those investment banking arms very considerably in recent years. Global banking and markets (GBM) headcount at RBS went [...] ...Read more

By Sarah Butcher, 13 Jan 2012

How to impress all the senior M&A bankers you encounter in interviews this year

In the event that you’re interviewing with senior M&A bankers for junior M&A jobs during 2012, you will probably want to impress them. This may not be easy. 2011 was not a good year for M&A; nor is there any indication that 2012 will be very much different. To make matters worse, the senior M&A [...] ...Read more

By Sarah Butcher, 04 Jan 2012

Things to bear in mind if you happen to be updating your CV over Christmas

It’s nearly Christmas. Needless to say, you may be thinking of using this valuable family time to update your CV. In the event that you are, we’ve asked some CV writing professionals to provide a few very quick tips to prevent any terrible mistakes. This is what they suggest: 1. Don’t be a perfectionist “You’re [...] ...Read more

By Sarah Butcher, 21 Dec 2011

Christmas Schedule!

As of December 22nd, the eFinancialCareers editorial team will be taking time off for Christmas. Normal service will not resume until January 3rd, although we will be posting a list of our best read articles for 2011 and our forecasts for 2012 during the intervening periods. To all our readers: have a very lovely break. [...] ...Read more

By Sarah Butcher, 21 Dec 2011

These are the sorts of financial services candidates who are STILL getting multiple offers

It’s nearly Christmas. The Eurozone is in a state of protracted disarray. France may be downgraded. Kim Jong-il is dead. Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s share price is dying. No one really knows what’s going to happen next year. But a few candidates are still getting multiple offers. We asked seven recruiters or headhunters, some [...] ...Read more

By Sarah Butcher, 20 Dec 2011

Bank of America’s deferred bonuses from 2010 are now worth nearly nothing

In 2010, Thomas Montag, head of global banking and markets at Bank of America, was riding high. He exercised some of his options in his employer, and realised a pleasant gain of $11.5m. This year, Montag is riding a pygmy goat. BofA’s proxy statement shows that Montag’s target earnings from 2010 stock awards were supposed to reach [...] ...Read more

By Sarah Butcher, 20 Dec 2011
 

18b, rue du Gothard, P.O. Box 325, 1225 Chêne-Bourg / Switzerland
Tel.:+41 22/860 2103, Fax:+41 22/860 2115, E-mail:info@sfoa.org