headhunters downunder

Crassus · Post by **Crassus** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:18 pm

Can anyone recommend recruitment professionals in Aus?

Also interested in people's opinion on the industry down there at the moment.

Tradenator · Post by **Tradenator** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:48 pm

I recently left Oz due to lack of opportunities. The industry is in contraction there with Finance professionals being increasingly being 'let go' at a steady pace. Funds are being shut down due to lack of capital raised, one good friend just got told this week that his fund will be shut down and he’s on the street. Taxes are very high, presenting a serious headwind to running a business.

The pension industry is at least 30 years behind the rest of the world in its allocations. They only want lower fees with no apparent regard for net performance. Career risk of the morons making the decisions prevents them from doing an honest job of it, and this flows on to the funds management industry. Some major global players, even in the usual equities strategies, have simply left over the last few years because they couldn’t get investors to front up.

On the banking side of things, there are the “big four” running the mortgage show. Macquarie, whom I must say I really hate, has some more modern things cooking but they seemed to have dumped an enormous amount of capital into US energy when prices were high so they must be stressed a little I would think. UBS, MS, GS, etc are all there on the sell side.

On the positive side of things, the local wildlife is awesome: Sydney and Perth both have some excellent specimens of the Australian Double-Breasted Mattress Thrasher.

Crassus · Post by **Crassus** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 12:26 am

Thanks for the reply. My first guess was that I'd either have to switch industries or set up something myself; and your info aligns with this.

Just a wildlife observer these days generally, but I always found southern specimens to be a little hyper or 'full-on'

sasquatch · Post by **sasquatch** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 12:41 am

Contact Adam Cook and Adam Gillibrand at Broadstreet Global in Sydney. They're good friends of mine. They're not quant guys, but have solid relationships across APAC.

Contact me for further details.

Tradenator · Post by **Tradenator** » Wed Dec 19, 2012 11:00 am

I also know Adam Gillibrand and concur that he is good. Adam knows the banking industry fairly well.

I would encourage others with local knowledge to chime in so that Crassus isn't just subject to my own bearishness. A larger sample size would be good.

EDIT: I think it's also a tough market for headhunters globally, and Australia (or Sydney at least) is no exception.

kamtsa · Post by **kamtsa** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 2:20 am

I can only second Tradenator's view - (derivative/replication pricing/systems configuration) market seems to be contracting in size, and also of 'interesting' things to do (wrt to Big4 banks, don't know anything about other areas). Some risk project work for CVA/FVA/DVA etc... from my very limited horizon Vanilla appears to be where it is now and regulations drive a lot of projects. Local seminar or talk series seem to have quieted down in the last 2 years, feels very isolated now. Maybe it is nowadays a good thing to work for a vendor, they sure have a lot of people on the ground. Also, Macquarie seems to have moved a lot of roles to Singapore, so did some of the other banks.

If you need a second name to talk to, Oliver Spiers has been ok to place quantish staff in our team, seems to know people.

(this is just my own, underinformed view from my local surrounding, I'd be keen to read the take from more experience/more local people)

Tradenator · Post by **Tradenator** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 12:54 pm

kamtsa, if you are looking for networking and talks/seminars, talk to DrGrumpy. He may be slow to get back to you over the holidays.

mellangong · Post by **mellangong** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 11:54 pm

Aussie Finance PhD here - I've heard good things from colleagues about BlackOcean Recruitment.