Caitlin Mclaughlin, head of campus recruiting at Citigroup, says the bank’s intake of analysts (university-leavers) will rise in 2006 because a broader range of divisions are hiring graduates. “More of our business areas are interested in growing through developing junior talent,” she says, “Areas like global transaction services are in the second year of hiring analysts and numbers are set to increase.”

The head of BA recruiting at a rival firm, says hiring targets for next year reflect both a strong financial environment and the bank’s long term commitment to a healthy analyst pipeline. “Our hiring targets on the increase, and we’ve seen a 5% -20% rise in the number of financial services firms on campus at careers fairs,” she says.

The forecast increase comes on the back of a strong year for investment banking graduate recruitment in 2005, following poor years previously. Farrell says the hiring environment for 2006 looks more like the boom year of 2000 than the bust year of 2002 – although ‘exuberance is less.’

Summer Route to Success

Banks show a continued commitment to selecting junior hires from their summer internship programs. At most firms, more than 70% of full time analyst positions are filled with candidates who interned with the bank the previous year.

Recruiters say increased competition for junior talent is encouraging banks to poach each other’s interns before full time offers can be made. “There’s absolutely more competition for top talent,” says Mclaughlin, “We met several strong interns from other banks over the summer and interviewed them in late August before they went back to school.”