These days wherever you turn it is hard to avoid hearing people talk about the financial crisis and its implications
. Almost all news items contain some links to it, and within employment issues the consequences are still very much felt. But has the recession had any impact on the way job seekers perceive working within banking or finance roles?
Despite the crisis people still seem to be very keen to work within banking or finance. Amongst the majority of the population it is safe to say that the reputation of banks has taken a hit, but amongst job seekers working for a bank or a financial institution remains very much desirable. Jobs for these companies are considered to be very prestigious as they still have the best technologies, the best systems and the best rewards compared to other sectors. Because of this the highest achievers still look to work for banks or financial institutions.
What else attracts people to work in finance or banking roles? Relative to other sectors these types of roles tend to have more responsibility and involve a lot of problem solving skills. Besides that they get a chance to work with people, there are opportunities to travel and to go out for meetings, and these roles also tend to offer possibilities for fast advancement. All these factors combined make these roles very challenging and interesting for the highest achievers.
So what has changed within the banking and finance sector? There seems to be a change in the expectations of employees that broadly run along the line of the generations. You could say that the employee profile is slowly evolving from what is called Generation X to Generation Y. Within these generations the expectations they have of their employers are very different. Generation X will want to know What is in it for me, while Generation Y expects great workplace flexibility as well as wanting extremely fast progression and are less willing to work their way up slowly.
The profile of employees within the banking and finance sectors is changing, however this is due to a change in mentality that runs alongside the generations more than being caused by the financial crisis.