Specialist roles most in demand

Taxback International just announced 80 new jobs in Kilkenny, to add to the 227 people it already employs there. The roles are across business development, sales, operations, finance and human resources, and HR director Brendan Ahearne is confident he will fill them with ease.

“We are seeing a massive increase in high-quality CVs from people from the area who had gone up to Dublin to work because that was where the jobs were previously. But now that the jobs market has picked back up, they want to move closer to home,” says Ahearne.

But there are some roles he knows will be harder to fill. “We have a commercial director role that has been open for a couple of months but you’d expect that because we are looking for someone with experience and specialist VAT skills,” he says.

His position is echoed up and down the country; while there are plenty of candidates for most roles, finding specialist skills is hard and getting harder.

It is this that differentiates the current employment boom from the previous one. “It feels like the Celtic tiger again in so far as everything is going full tilt, but the key difference is that, back then everybody was in demand. Now what clients are really looking for are people with very specialist skills,” says Louise Campbell of Robert Walters, a global recruitment agency with 4,000 staff worldwide, which specialises in sectors such as financial services, legal and accountancy.

Most scarce of all are professional candidates with experience in regulation, risk and compliance. “You can’t just be an accountant anymore, for example, to be very sought-after you need to be an accountant with experience in anti-money laundering or financial crime. And everyone is crying out now for professionals with experience in relation to GDPR (the EU’s general data-protection regulation). They want someone who has been involved in data protection for the past five to seven years.”

Banking

In banking, those most in demand have the experience to tackle MiFid II, another EU directive, this time in relation to financial instruments. “It’s all about financial risk, regulatory risk, operational risk, credit risk and market risk. And clients want candidates who also have really strong quantitative and analytical skills.” It’s why a head of risk position in a financial institution can command a starting salary of more than €200,000.

Anyone home for Christmas and considering staying should bear in mind that compliance skills are eminently transferable from other jurisdictions. Ditto skills in relation to data and cyber crime, of which a dearth also exists here.

The hunt is on for experienced middle managers too, across a number of sectors. “The significant increase we saw in 2017 was in mid-level appointments. It’s a legacy of the downturn in that there is now a lack of depth in many departments; the top guys stayed on to navigate the downturn, but no one is coming up behind them because no one was hired,” Campbell says.

Suitably qualified and experienced lawyers are in demand, whether specialising in corporate, banking or property law. The fall-off in the number of law students as a result of the property crash means people skilled and experienced in these areas could command a premium.

But if the world or law, risk management and regulatory compliance doesn’t appeal to you, don’t despair. Those with a proven track record in sales and business development will find good opportunities too, not least because such skills are in scarcer supply then you might think.

“A lot of college graduates won’t pick up a ringing phone, preferring instead to bury themselves in emails. And they won’t call someone to say ‘let’s put a face to the name and go for coffee’,” says Campbell. “If you have the people skills required to forge relationships, you’ll always earn a crust.”