UK
Quit the City and work in the regions
8 March 2007
“If you’re a corporate financier with good experience, you’ll find an increasingly broad range of opportunities outside the City of London,” says David Twiddle, managing director of London and Leeds-based search firm Hamilton Caine.
He adds: “Boutiques are opening all the time. Plus there are jobs to be had in the Big Four or Big Six accountancy firms, and in private equity funds.”
Hamilton Caine is looking to fill around nine junior corporate finance roles across Rothschild’s offices in Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. “Rothschild are typically looking for someone who’s qualified as an accountant, with between zero and two years’ post qualification experience,” says Twiddle. “But they’d also love to hear from analysts in investment banks who’ve got 18 months' experience plus.”
Other potential provincial employers include the likes of boutiques Altium Capital, Clearwater Corporate Finance, and Zeus Capital, which run offices in Manchester, Catalyst Corporate Finance, which has offices in Birmingham and Nottingham, and Fusion Corporate Finance, which is in Birmingham and Leicester.
Twiddle says the lack of a local contact base need be no hurdle to transplanting your career out of the City: “A lot of these places are working outside their local jurisdictions.”
Separately, Deloitte is hiring junior corporate finance candidates for its Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow offices. Ian Steele, its partner in charge of corporate finance, told Scotland on Sunday that the firm’s Scottish operations are “extremely busy”.
Pay in the provinces
Senior staff who leap out of the City into partner-level roles at Big Four accountancy firms can still be assured of six figures – pay is anywhere from £250k to £600k, says Twiddle.
For more junior staff, provincial pay is less impressive – a second-year associate might earn £40k to £50k basic, plus a bonus of less than 100%.
But property is a lot cheaper – and in Leeds at least, the moors are nearby.
