Mike Richards explains why banking professionals struggle to move into corporate treasury roles. For two group treasurer openings, 150 corporate practitioners applied before banking candidates were even considered. Banking teaches daily deal work, but corporate treasury needs people who already think like treasurers and can start immediately.
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If you're in banking and you want to work in corporate treasury, the challenge is you're walking into what is a very crowded waiting room. It's easy to say yourself, because for every corporate treasury position that we recruit, we've got here, there might be 10 people in front of you. Often it's more, 50, 75, 100 people, corporate treasury professionals applying for the same role as you. Now, this is not me criticizing banking guys, quite the opposite actually. Because I think a lot of the banking treasury professionals are good enough and they have a lot to offer. They've got experience across funding, risk, regulation, systems, stakeholder management. I got pushback on one of my previous posts where someone said, oh, you don't rate us. Quite the opposite. I've done a lot of banking recruitment in the past. I rate you very highly, but you're very specialist and you've got very specialist skill set with your banking knowledge, whereas corporate treasury professionals have a wider Bank of Knowledge, they might do systems, they might do risk and regulation, they might do debt capital markets, but they might do it once or twice a year. Whereas if you're in debt capital markets in a bank, you do it every day, maybe 2 deals before lunch. So it's very different. And you're not being judged in isolation. This is one of the key things as well, that you're being compared against people that are actually already working in corporate treasury. And I get 5 to 10 emails a week from candidates in banking who want to move into corporate treasury. The questions are often very similar. Can I make the move? I've worked with corporate treasuries for years. Surely that helps. Are my skills transferable? The honest answer is yes, that move can sometimes happen. Some people can make it, but transferable skills also have to compete with these guys. Who have got direct experience. They're currently working in positions within corporate treasury functions. And clients, when they come to us, are saying, I want someone that is already living, working, and breathing within corporate treasury. I'm coming from banking and wanting to make that transition because they're under such pressure. A lot of CFOs are saying, and treasurers, when they're recruiting for their team, I need someone that can slot in straight away. But the fact is, when a client comes to me and said, Mike, find me the strongest treasurer for this position, I ask them, will they consider someone from banking or financial services? Most of them say, I don't have the time, Mike. I need to get a corporate treasury practitioner to come in to fill the role. Earlier this year, Katie Richards Richards and I recruited two group treasurer roles. We had over 150 corporate treasury practitioners actually apply for each role before I even opened and looked at any of the guys from banking. And that says something about the market, not necessarily the banking professionals themselves. There's this logjam of talent. And I think actually that is the market that I see a lot of banking treasury professionals try to get into. So my advice is pretty simple. Please be realistic about the competition. If you are there with your resume trying to break in, you know, you've got to go against this competition. Don't assume your transferable skills are going to be exactly the same and they're going to be enough. They're not. You need to work out how your experience is going to directly translate into the corporate environment over and above these candidates up here. Maybe speak to people who've actually made the move. Maybe talk to some corporate treasurers if you can over a coffee. Be prepared to take a backwards or sideways step if you're looking at a role. So if you're in banking and want to move into corporate treasury, don't take it personally. It's not about you. It's about the market, if you like. Doesn't mean your experience has no value, quite the opposite, but the competition for you is fierce and you need to understand the waiting room you're gonna be walking into in the competitive environment. It might be 1 of you against 10 of them. That's not criticism. That's just the market as it currently stands. Hope it improves, but keep on listening to the podcast and read the newsletter. Hope you enjoy it. Hey, thanks.
