SC
Is Scottish asset management recruitment largely restricted to the middle office?
23 February 2010
Asset managers in Scotland are looking to recruit again this year, but the majority of roles currently on offer are either junior or middle office focused, and portfolio manager positions are still a relative rarity.
As we've alluded to previously, asset management firms north of the border are bullish about their hiring requirements in 2010.
The number of roles on the market is up around 30% compared to this time last year, suggests Betsy Williamson, managing director at Edinburgh-based Core-Asset Consulting, but this is from very flat 2009 levels.
"There are a selection of portfolio management roles within a number of organizations, and there is movement, but these are still fairly limited," she says. "We're seeing many more roles within risk, compliance and other middle office functions as well as investment analysis, quantitative analysis, project management and product development."
Joslin Rowe's 2010 Scottish financial services recruitment review highlighted asset management as the sector most likely to add headcount this year.
Margaret Dyer, director of Joslin Rowe in Scotland, says: "In London, we're seeing a lot of demand for portfolio management roles. However, in Scotland, the majority of new positions are in the middle office, but we're expecting this to filter down into the front office later in the year."
Indeed, the bulk of the recruitment at the moment is based around changing processes and developing new products, suggests Mike Leeman, senior financial services consultant at Edinburgh-based recruiters Bright Purple Resourcing.
"Project managers and change managers are being hired within Scottish asset managers currently," he says. "A lot of this is about improving efficiency, but it's also about positioning for future growth opportunities."
