Corporate finance: foot in the door at the Big Four

Deloitte is hiring corporate financiers for its Scottish team.

In all, the company is looking for seven people. These include an assistant director for its Aberdeen office and two sets of corporate finance personnel for its lead advisory unit, with three individuals to be based in Edinburgh and three in Glasgow.

Ian Steele, the partner in charge of corporate finance, told Scotland on Sunday the move reflects the unit's growth - only one of the jobs is to replace someone who's left.

"My recruitment need at the moment is to get a team into Aberdeen and supplement what we already have in Glasgow and Edinburgh. And the reason for that is that we have been extremely busy and we anticipate continuing to be extremely busy," he said.

The posts at assistant director, manager and executive level are all relatively junior, although candidates for assistant director will be expected to bring with them considerable "experience of managing corporate financial deals relatively unsupervised". The manager jobs are the next rung down the career ladder, while the executive posts are for those looking to embark on a career in corporate finance.

Steele said finding people with deal experience was proving difficult and that it was easier to find newly qualified people.

Working as a corporate financier for Deloitte isn't quite the same as working for an investment bank. But one recruiter says taking an entry-level post with the firm could be a good career move: "Serving an apprenticeship at a Big Four firm can effectively set you up for life - you'll almost certainly be snapped up by a smaller firm for a senior post, down the line."