Careers – safe to cross

It is especially frustrating for many finance professionals that they can perfectly match all of the skill and personal requirements in an advertisement, or job specification, but will be instantly de-selected because of a lack of relevant sector experience.

It’s a serious matter. This recession has hit you hard. There may be a stratum of super people, who always give the appearance of being in demand, but for most it is a major frustration to be barred from making what may be a perfectly good case to at least be considered for a job.

Meanwhile those employers that are seeking the services of a new accounting expert rightly recognise that they have both a choice and an opportunity. A choice of outstanding people, and an opportunity to truly strengthen their finance operation.

This means that many job and person specifications are drafted in the tightest terms and are exacting regarding industry and skills. So can finance professionals realistically expect to be able to transfer from sector to sector under these market circumstances?

If you don’t have sector experience then the case for moving into a different sector will rely on your relevant skills. For example, a company may state in an advertisement that change management skills are a requirement. Applicants that can demonstrate a proven record in change management may therefore think it is worth applying. This appears to be entirely valid. Leading change is widely viewed as being about people and processes. Leadership of people may be regarded as a generic skill, if you can do it in retail why can’t you do it in financial services? Many argue that sector knowledge is a disadvantage, fresh thinking applicants are not tainted with stereotypical views.

Process skills, it can be argued, are equally generic. Some sectors may have different regulatory requirements but surely it is within the scope of a capable finance professional to grasp the issues reasonably quickly. Financial r eporting and managing financial transactions are processes in any organisation, transactions must be recorded, invoiced and money received. How complicated can it be?

The point is often forcibly made that finance skills are portable. For an intelligent qualified accountant picking up the nuance of a sector quickly is a reasonable expectation. This means it should be possible, for example, to quickly offer commercial insight based on interpretation of commercial and financial metrics and an innate ability to pick out the narrative that underlies the numbers. Also there are sure to be many people inside an organisation who can offer sector knowledge to support the development of an incoming individual.

he question can rightly be posed to employers, therefore, should the employer hire the best person available in a given sector or the best person? There might be a big difference. Going for sector experience might be short-term thinking and ignore the immense skills others have to offer. In the long run, calibre and the right personal qualities will outweigh experience. This can bring substantial benefits and appointments are sometimes made on this basis. So why the regular insistence on industry sector experience?

The answers lie in risk and opportunity. The consequences when mistakes are made can be cataclysmic. It will not have escaped anyone’s notice that Andy Hornby, the former chief executive of HBOS, was appointed to his post from ASDA. Might disaster have been averted if an experienced banker, rather than a food and consumer goods retailer, had been appointed? The link no doubt was retailing. Hornby, and those interviewing him, must have been convinced that a bank could be viewed as a retail operation and that his skills were therefore transferable. Hornby got the publicity and faced the commons committee, but the finger of blame should point to those who appointed him too. They took a big risk and paid the price. As for Hornby, his skill and ability told, having been appointed group chief executive of Alliance Boots in July 2009.

All of this begs the question, why take an unnecessary risk when there are so many great opportunities to hire people with sector experience, who can add immediate value? This sets the bar very high for outsiders. A HR director recently involved with the recruitment of a new FD recently asked: “Why would I risk personal credibility by backing someone who lacks a key component of our specification when I don’t need to?”

He went on to point out: “ It is more challenging to hire from outside our sector because it is necessary to consider more variables in the selection process, for example, size of firm, complexity, international reach, regulatory background, the nature of the finance organisation and so on. The idea that a candidate may bring the required skills and competency profile from outside the sector ‘cuts no ice’.”

Ultimately we are just dealing with the market laws of supply and demand. Much, therefore, depends on your circumstances. Those sitting in gainful employment may want to change job but feel under no pressure to do so. They can afford to wait and need not be too stressed by being overlooked because of a lack of sector experience. For many who find themselves out of work it is a far greater frustration. The effort you put into applying for jobs that don’t match your sector depends on what your priorities and circumstances are and the state of the sectors in which you have worked. The correlation between employment markets and GDP movement is a given. So one thing is for sure, when the market improves, cross sector moves will become easier again.
Paul Goodman is the founder of Goodman Masson, a specialist financial recruitment business.

Martini qualification?

There are a few angles for candidates to consider. There are opportunities to find similarities between unlikely sectors. A recent case of a large legal firm appointing from the advertising sector was explained by the strong link between the billing systems in the legal and advertising sectors. There are other, perhaps slightly more obvious, links. The partnership structures in architecture, legal and other types of professional practice create a particular business culture which requires a certain level of understanding. Candidates have got to be smart to spot the links.