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How active is the treasury jobs market as we approach Spring 2021?

Associate Director, Guy Middleton presents his latest market report...

For some months now, many of the treasury job opportunities coming to the market have been with smaller, growing companies looking to recruit specialist treasury expertise for the first time. There have also been a number of opportunities within the treasury teams of the challenger banks.

There have been fewer opportunities with the larger companies and banks, as they have typically been able to utilise the resources they have within their larger treasury teams, or recruit internally from elsewhere in the business. There have, however, been signs that these bigger businesses are starting to seek external talent, with a particular willingness to recruit on an initial contract basis.

Effective cash flow management remains a priority for many businesses, and as a result, much of the treasury recruitment that has taken place in recent months has focused on ensuring businesses have been adequately resourced in this area.

Many of these opportunities have been at more junior levels although, as I have mentioned, an increasing number of smaller companies are realising the importance of having specialist treasury expertise within the business, and have recruited more experienced treasury professionals into stand alone treasury roles.

This has been particularly noticeable in the fintech space, but is a trend that is likely to continue across all sectors, resulting in an increasing number of small treasury teams with smaller businesses.

The worsening COVID situation during December, and the resulting third national lockdown certainly dented confidence as we moved into 2021.

Despite the vaccine rollout, there has been an increased level of caution along with a number of businesses opting to push any recruitment back until trading conditions improve. As a result, we saw a slight reduction in the number of treasury jobs being recruited during January and February compared to the period leading up to Christmas.

Pleasingly, the government announcement regarding the roadmap for lifting lockdown does seem to have been welcomed across all sectors.

It is still a little early to predict exactly what impact this will have on the treasury job market, but we are likely to see confidence returning, and a greater willingness to recruit within many more businesses over the coming months.

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Taking advantage of the recruitment recovery

• In this market, or in any market, leave nothing to chance when it comes to interview preparation. Review and recap on your career to date being able to highlight key initiatives and achievements from your most recent roles, research the company and review the profiles of who you're meeting with.
• Keep in touch with your recruitment contacts and don't just rely on job boards to hear about opportunities as not all jobs are advertised.
• We're all experienced now when it comes to video calls but should you prepare differently for a video interview? There are certainly some key areas which you should think about when the interviewer is making those all important first impressions. And no, don't wave at the end!
• There's plenty of advice when it comes to how best to present your profile on LinkedIn, there are really no excuses these days for this not to be on point.
• We're true believers in promoting transferable skills when it comes to presenting a candidate shortlist to clients but if the job brief, for example depicts a specific industry experience being essential then think again before making an application. Save your energy, both professionally and emotionally, for the ones you have a good chance of success with to avoid application fatigue.

Guy Middleton is the Treasury Associate Director at Harvey John.

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