Hawk Search Executive Recruitment

HAWK SEARCH UPDATE MARCH 2010

To kick off our third quarter at Hawk Search, here is a list of all our current open opportunities:

Equity Content Leader - pan-European remit - based London

ETF Analyst - fluent French or German - based London

Senior Reporter - Financial Institutions - based London

New Business Sales - Emerging Markets Macro Research - based London

Business Development Manager - ECM - based London

Business Development Manager - M&A - based London

Fixed Income Evaluator - Italian Markets - based London

Sales Director - US Research Start-up - based London

Sales Manager (UK territory) - Commodities - based London

Data Manager - Fixed Income - based Hong Kong

You will see all these roles advertised on our website as well as on our Twitter page.

To find us on Facebook and discover more about Hawk Search, click here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM HAWK SEARCH

We are back from the Christmas holidays and wish all our readers, clients and candidates a very Happy New Year and much success in 2010.

On the first working day of the new decade, we are wondering what 2010 will hold in store...

The eFinancialCareers web site makes tentative predictions for the year ahead. They believe increased M&A activity will increase headcount in the banks. They see an unleashing of pent up demand in ECM as well as hiring across government bond desks. There will be an increased diversification in electronic trading of credit derivatives across exchanges and dark pools. There'll be bank hiring across commodities. And finally, hiring across post-trade processing services will increase.

Our clients sell news, data, research, software and technology to banks, investment managers and hedge funds. If the banks are hiring then there is more demand for our clients' services, albeit there's generally a delay between the banks hiring and their suppliers beefing up their teams. The first quarter of trading (Q4, 2009) was positive for Hawk Search with a good flow of hiring mandates, however, we are not overly bullish about 2010. There are no underlying macro-economic factors to suggest we have moved into recovery. There will be hiring and, if the eFinancialCareers predictions come true, our clients will have more people to sell to in 2010. This may support sign-off for new headcount.

DIVING INTO OUR SECOND QUARTER AT HAWK SEARCH

We have just closed our first full three months of trading and are looking forward to the next quarter. Our first quarter has been busy, mostly generating new business opportunities, completing some hires and actively networking in the areas where we have won mandates. We have had many meetings with corporations explaining our search approach. We have also been cold calling and making ourselves known to new firms.

We see optimistic hiring talk in our small area of the financial markets. (We work with data, research, news, software, technology companies who sell their products to buy-side and sell-side firms). However, we cannot pin-point where that optimism is coming from, given there are no strong economic figures indicating we have recovered from events pre- and post-Lehman. We have observed some firms have had headcount signed off. In some cases this was headcount that was originally requested at the start of this year but hiring was put on hold due to market conditions. Other firms are completing cost cutting and some have indicated they'll have new budgets in January. In addition, we have been speaking with 2 US firms, who are expanding in European. Perhaps the favourable exchange rate is influencing some of these decisions. 

Our next quarter will see us working across fixed income valuations, investor relations, fund research, macro research, commodities research/data and equity market data. We will be expanding our network in these areas as we solicit recommendations for top performers.

OUR FIRST MONTH AT HAWK SEARCH

Today, we come up for air and reflect on our first month of Hawk Search. We have had a very positive and encouraging start. We thank everyone who has taken the time to offer us their support and votes of confidence.

We have been busy and it has not been without a few blips. We couldn’t have anticipated that on the day we start promoting our Hawk Search gmail address that Google Mail would have a major outage.

In our first month we have kicked off our website/blog which will gradually build a picture of the markets and types of clients we work with. We have also been contacting new companies and putting in place agreements to work together. In the coming months we will be adding more company links to our web site and hope our Current Vacancies tab will be more extensive.

In the past few weeks we have been speaking with corporations with a variety of different products and candidate requirements. These firms include a fund research business, an exchange, a provider of independent investment research, a knowledge processing outsourcing business, a trade matching organisation, a corporate governance firm, a news wire and a reference data business.

We see optimism in the market although we do not hear too many people being overly bullish. Some firms who have held off hiring are starting to get head count approved. Other firms are re-structuring internally to find a different way to fill the gaps.

WEEK AHEAD FOR HAWK SEARCH

We are pleased to have received so many good wishes last week (thank you everyone) and to start getting processes in place for Hawk Search.

To start the week we are preparing two shortlists for clients as well as sourcing new business opportunities. We are also talking with a New York firm who are looking to set up in the UK later in the year. We are having further conversations with them later in the week. Less enjoyably, we are getting to grips with new systems and procedures.

We'll be adding an industry news section to the web site as well as industry blog links. These should be updated by the end of this week.

WELCOME TO HAWK SEARCH EXECUTIVE RECRUITMENT

Welcome to Hawk Search Limited. We are a UK-based Executive Search firm working with companies that sell pricing, data, news, software and technology products to investment banks, investment managers, hedge funds and wealth managers. We help find analysts, reporters, sales, marketing, product and client service staff for our clients.

We work in close collaboration with our clients and aim to find the right person for the job. Our approach is structured and our search cycle includes business development, understanding the client brief, market research, presentation of long list, agreement of candidate short list, candidate approaches, managing interview logistics and, finally, contract negotiation. 

In our first year we will continue to add content to our web site so it will accurately reflect the industry we represent and the types of mandates we fill. We'll post current vacancies and industry news. We are also actively prospecting for new business opportunities.