In the March 2012 issue of Fortune Magazine, Mitchell Peskin, Partner and Executive Vice President at The Execu|Search Group is interviewed about the boom in business for Compliance Officer positions. In the article, Peskin discusses the hiring rush that will start as the result of new regulations taking place.

Financial firms need their own Compliance Offers to oversee activities and these officers will report directly to top management. In order to be considered for the position of a Compliance Officer, you will need knowledge of the regulations and extensive experience in the industry.

Along with a high demand for these positions, the article also states that the position at smaller banks pays $70,000-$90,000, while it offers salaries around $150,000 at investment banks and hedge finds. According to Peskin, the role of Compliance Officer is a significant growth area and there will be a hiring surge this summer as the Volcker Rule takes effect. The Volcker Rule, a section of the Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that bans proprietary trading by commercial banks, is scheduled to be implemented in late July.  So, who’s hiring? According to Fortune Magazine, companies such as BNY Mellon, First Bank of Texas, MetLife and PNC Financial Services Group.

So you decided to begin your job search… You update your resume, select the recruiter that you want to work with, and call him/her up to set up a day/time to meet. When you show up for your appointment with the recruiter, everything goes well. You discuss your background, your skills and exactly what you are looking for in your next job move; from the type and size of the firm you are interested in, to the location and the type of role you are looking to move into.
 
The recruiter does a search and comes back with a list of 5 firms/positions that would be an ideal fit for your education, skills and experience. When he/she discusses these positions with you, you’re excited and interested, telling the recruiter that these are exactly the types of roles you are looking for. So then the recruiter asks you if it is okay to send your resume to those 5 firms for consideration. If your reply is, “No wait, I want to look at the job descriptions first and do my research on the firms to see if I think I would be a good fit,” then you are now working against your recruiter as opposed to ”with“ your recruiter.

Here are three tips to help your recruiter better serve you:

1. You have to trust that during the meeting you had with your recruiter, he/she gained a solid understanding of what you are interested in.Based on the time you spent with the recruiter telling them your interests and job needs, you must trust their experience in the industry and the knowledge they have about their clients. Based off of your important in-person meeting, yourrecruiter will know what would be a good fit between you and the clients they work with.
   
   
2. In this market time kills everything. Think about it… while you are doing your ”research“ into a firm, your competition may have given their recruiter permission to send in their resume to that same firm, and they are one step closer to interviewing with the firm and possibly getting an offer. Someone else can take your ideal job, while you still have not even had the time to take a look at the firm’s website.
   
   
3. Instead of ”reading“ into every word on a job description, you have the possibility of spending that time meeting with the client. If the recruiter sends your resume and they are interested in meeting with you, you will be able to see if there is ”a right fit“ and hear first-hand what the position is all about. Chemistry is everything in a job search- chemistry to trust your recruiter, chemistry when you step foot into the firm’s lobby and chemistry when you meet the hiring manager. You won’t get any of that type of information from the web or by meticulously reading thru a job description.

 
You need to trust that your recruiter knows what you are looking for. Don’t spend needless amounts of time researching firms or reading and re-reading a job descriptions before you let your recruiter submit your resume- your competition could be busy taking YOUR IDEAL job!

Elisa Dammacco
Director – Accounting/Finance (Taxation)