Financial job market news in Canada – job market & recruitment news for the financial sector – Canada & Worldwide

Traders of physical commodities including crude oil, liquefied natural gas, iron ore and coal are the focus of a renewed hiring boom that's driving pay packages back to the peaks reached in early 2008. Good performers are getting packages of $1 million on average, while stars are pulling in guarantees of $5 million and up. The recruiting drive is in part a response to regulatory developments. Banks and hedge funds see... Read more

Is honesty really the best policy when it means complaining to your boss? As official probes into actions by Goldman Sachs and other major banks zero in on decisions and processes at all levels of an organization, finance professionals need to think harder than ever about when and how to speak up if something is bothering them. The rules of the game have changed, observes Alan Kearns, founder of Toronto-based coaching... Read more

Financial employment in Canada is gaining steam alongside a rapid pickup in economy-wide job growth. Canada’s finance sector added a net 10,500 jobs during April. During the past 12 months, payroll jobs in finance, insurance, real estate and leasing sector swelled by 34,300 or 3.2 percent. Demand for financial services professionals has been "crazy" hot and recruiters face pressure to complete assignments more quickly, remarks Nathalie Francisci, executive vice president at... Read more

Ever wonder what's going on in your boss's skull? What his motivation is, and what that motivation means for you? The answer - or part of it, anyway - lies in thinking like a boss. And if you want to think like a boss, you have to read like a boss. Effective leaders are constantly consuming and assimilating the best ideas in print, and there are literally hundreds of fantastic management... Read more

JPMorgan's expansion in natural resources banking is spurring hires of energy and mining bankers in Canada, with more to come. David Harrison, newly hired from UBS where he headed energy investment banking, will lead the buildout of an energy banking franchise for JPMorgan in Calgary. He reports to Adam Howard, head of Canadian investment banking, and Vean Gregg, head of North American oil and gas investment banking. Several more hires in... Read more

If you lost a finance-sector job in recent years, odds are your transition is taking longer than you expected. Money Magazine lays out a smorgasbord of useful tips for retooling a job search that's dragging. Take its example, former Ernst & Young IT manager Terase Salerno. Laid off in January 2009 after 15 years managing IT staffers and projects, the 36-year old West Milford, N.J. resident has had just six... Read more

The March Madness basketball shootout between Cornell and top seed Kentucky supported the truism that athletic achievements can aid careers in finance. Two current and two recent former players on Cornell's squad have done or are about to do summer internships at Goldman Sachs. Backup forward Mark Coury, a finance major, landed a sales and trading internship there this summer and might pursue a permanent slot upon graduating in 2011.... Read more

When there are no jobs in town, what do you do? Cry in your Cheerios? Wait it out? Increasingly, the unemployed are opting to take jobs in other cities. According to data from global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 18.2 percent of job seekers relocated for employment in the second quarter of 2009, up from 14.3 percent in the previous quarter and just 11.4 percent in the second quarter of... Read more

As financial professionals begin planning their next moves, getting the attention of headhunters, those gatekeepers to top positions, can be a challenge. What to do? Be actively involved in your industry, get recommendations from colleagues, and know how to interact with recruiters. According to the Financial Times: - Put your self out there. It's the most important thing you can do, Clive Davis, a director at Robert Half, told the newspaper.... Read more

Deferring compensation is working out nicely for staff at Scotiabank if the January quarter is any indication. While a new incentive plan multiplied stock-based pay, the total for salaries and other cash compensation also rose for the investment banking unit's 1,568 employees and dipped just slightly for the company overall. In a table accompanying its earnings release Tuesday, Canada's third-largest bank recorded C$105 million (US$98.1 million at the Jan. 31... Read more

With financial firms doling out four- and five-figure employee referral bonuses yet skittish about hiring anyone not currently performing identical work at their closest rival, personal introductions may be more critical than ever to getting in the door. Two recent items offer a multitude of useful insights into how to make networking work for you. First, a post on Harry Urschel's The Wise Job Search blog last week explains the key... Read more

In case you're one of six people in the U.S. who missed the movie Up in the Air, allow me to describe one of its more poignant scenes: George Clooney's character, Ryan, is firing Bob, a middle-management schlub who breaks down and worries what his kids will think about his newfound unemployment. "You know why kids love athletes?" Ryan asks him. "Because they screw lingerie models," Bob replies. "No, that's not why we... Read more

Whether transitioning to a new sector or eyeing the next rung on the ladder where you're already perched, it's essential to spell out your competitive advantages clearly and concisely in both your resume and face-to-face presentations. Career and personal branding strategist Cindy Kraft explains why in a post on her CFO-Coach blog. When a client voiced frustration that target employers failed to recognize his financial leadership ability, the coach asked: "Whose... Read more

Here's a depressingly frequent situation: You survived several interviews with a single employer. But after a fifth or tenth meeting that seemed to go even more swimmingly than those before, communication abruptly stops. How if at all can you get things moving again? An article in Forbes magazine's Jan. 26 issue offers tips from several career experts we've sometimes cited at eFinancialCareers News. The story is a useful compendium of advice... Read more

Overhauling investment banks has leaped to the top of the U.S. political agenda. But don't leap to the conclusion your career prospects have been upended since noon Thursday. Whatever the Obama-Volcker legislative program might do to banks' future profit streams or (equivalently) share prices if enacted, with very few exceptions career prospects won't be affected in dramatic or predictable ways. That holds true even for careers in business segments directly... Read more

Could Google's threat to pull out of China affect banking career prospects? The question isn't nearly as far-fetched as it sounds. World news media (outside of China) are framing their coverage in terms of human rights and free speech. While those two issues may have driven Google's decision, a different aspect of the story appears more salient for other global corporations doing business in and with China: maintaining the integrity of... Read more

If you thought an employer can never be held accountable for replacing a worker based on age discrimination, here's good news. A UK employment tribunal in December found Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce liable for carrying out a deliberate plan to replace its London derivatives marketing team with a younger bunch during 2008. Achim Beck, a 42-year old senior derivatives salesman who joined CIBC in January 2007 at £125,000 ($200,000 at... Read more