Volition

How much of a salary increase should you ask for when moving jobs in Capital Markets Technology? It's worth factoring in that these candidates were actually successful in securing a move. Of my 10 Volition London H1 placements where someone was moving from permanent employment to permanent employment the average salary increase was 11.92%. The biggest hike achieved was 24%, they had only been employed by one company for 3 years after university. Only one other candidate of the 9 achieved more than a 20% uplift, again they'd been employed by one employer for 3 years after university - is this the best time to cash in in your career? However, when you factor in the 3 candidates placed that were unemployed when offered, that average falls to 9.39%. Of the 13 - 3 took slight base salary pay cuts, 2 were unemployed at the time of moving and 1 got a heap of additional WFH flexibility. #uksalarydata #uksalaryincreases

I usually post a Friday role update but we have closed out a lot of the roles or are managing the final stages of interview processes at the moment, so my next week is looking very free to take on more work. If any existing clients or new Capital Markets Technology/Data firms want to speak about anything they need help with, drop me a message and let's set up a Teams. Also will be in the City Wednesday afternoon if you'd prefer to meet face-face. #capitalmarketstechnology #fintechrecruitment

A few months ago an old placement of mine reached out to say they were thinking of looking at the market, sent me their CV and asked for feedback on it. It was a good CV, 7/10 - well written, nicely presented and formatted. The only advice I gave them was that there wasn't anything written on the tangible benefits to the business realised from their work. To do this you need to include some metrics or data points and this can be done regardless of your skillset or role. Here are some examples: • Quantify your individual achievements: Sold £740k in 2023 and £450k so far in 2024. • Highlight company growth and performance stemming from your work: Led project to restructure sales division, leading to a 2x in revenue growth and a 3x in client base size in last 18 months. • Demonstrate operational improvements: Streamlined a finance & accounting application and cut month-end timelines by 20%, implemented a new reporting structure that improved data accuracy by 25%. • Even as a technologist, you can write about realised business benefits: Reduced the time to market from approx. 3 weeks to 24 hours by leveraging Java reflective API to create dynamically configured market data processors. • Think about financial metrics: revenue generated, cost savings, return on investment etc to highlight your commercial acumen. #cvwriting #cvadvice #metrics

We've had a couple of roles in the last month that went to market, but were filled internally. There are big benefits to internal hiring - the person already knows the company, people & product and they're likely to stay on longer when challenged and moved around. So you get to keep your best assets engaged. Has anyone worked in an organisation where they had an exceptional internal mobility policy / framework and why was it so good? I'd be interested to share any of the findings with my clients. #internalmobility #talentplanning #internalhiring

A year ago I read Algorithms to Live By - which included a couple of pages on the The Secretary Problem. A made up scenario on Optimal Stopping. Whilst it makes some perfect assumptions that don't pertain to the real world, it still has some relevant take aways on running an efficient interview process and giving you an idea as to when you should pull the trigger on the right candidate. https://lnkd.in/exK7ugMw #algorithms #interviewing

A lot of the candidates I source are very passive in their job search - have been at their employer a few years and might not have interviewed for a while. I'll put them forward for a role and as that interview process warms up, naturally you'll start to think is the first role I've interviewed for the one I should go with & is it the best deal for me? Or should I try and see what the rest of the market is like first? If you’re fortunate enough to be offered the first role you interview for, are you happy to accept it or would you like to interview at more firms to feel the rest of the market? #interviewprocesses #fintechrecruitment #jobsearch

If you're a candidate speaking with a recruiter, listen to the various package components and flexibility - then be explicit with your salary demand and what you think it would take to move. So many candidates say, "ok so I'd be looking for £75-90,000" and a lot of the junior recruiters I have worked with in the past then relay that range to the client. More often than not if offered, you'll be offered £75,000. Rather than saying £75,000-90,000 to a recruiter, say for this role and with the information you've given me on the benefits, bonus and in-office requirements I would be interested in it at £80,000 and you'll get offered what you want at the end of the process. #salarynegotiation #offermanagement #fintechrecruitment

I've lost three candidates in the last two weeks to other offers, this barely happened at all last year - which is great news for job seekers in Capital Markets Tech & hopefully shows some greenshoots of recovery for the wider PE/VC backed technology market. After a year long lull companies are feeling much more confident and hiring again. This necessitates ambitious firms to be able to make a hire in ideally 2 weeks but at a maximum 3 weeks from candidate submission. If you meet the perfect candidate but have too many stages or stakeholders in the process who are a continual bottle neck due to lack of availability, have you explored alternative interview processes? Get in touch if you want to discuss what I think are the optimal interview processes to hire great FinTech Sales Directors or Client facing technologists in 2 weeks that balance the right amount of screening with time efficiency. #interviewprocess #capitalmarketsrecruitment #candidateexperience

I posted at the beginning of the year about a purple patch Volition had gone through and so it's only right to write about last week...almost every candidate got rejected, took a different role and one role was filled internally. Having been in recruitment for so long now, it doesn't get to me anymore but I've probably been working about 70% as much in this last month as I usually would. The main thing this has highlighted to me is how labour intensive good recruitment is. Everyone is speaking about automation, AI and outsourcing but even with all that, if you're not someone who knows the market and sourcing on a role for 30+ hours, you're not going to be able to cover the market and top grade the best talent. If you're not working with a dedicated recruiter, how are you finding the time to source & screen talent? #fintechtalent #sourcingtalent #screeningtalent