Hello, accountants: Want a salary bonus this year?

Better get your hopes down as bonuses are likely to be minimal, if not non-existent.

According to Morgan McKinley's 2012 Salary Guide, the accounting and finance market was fairly mixed in terms of hiring activity in 2011. The early part of the year saw both investment hiring and the normal turnover of employees post bonus season. Professionals were also willing to move firms to make good gains in their annual basic pay.  

However, moving into H2 2011, as the impact of the sovereign debt crisis and issues in Europe became of high concern, and trading volumes significantly softened, employers hiring in this space became considerable selective. In some cases the  large investment banks started to make redundancies across finance in product control, financial control and projects.

he general feeling across the market in H2 2012 is that bonus rounds are likely to be minimal or in some cases none for the year, and pay will most likely be frozen. Demand for commodities, product controllers and management reporting professionals seems to be particularly noteworthy, and most financial institutions are being highly
selective in terms of relevance of  experience.

Certainly, banking experience is still a must in this area, and employers are expecting professionals to be in good supply. If investment banks continue to make redundancies this year, it’s likely we will see fairly long and thorough interview processes throughout the year.