Challenge

A boutique M&A Advisory firm in Sydney wanted to expand its team with the addition of an Investment Banking Analyst. Less than 10% of the existing IB market is female. A balanced workforce enhances the diversity of thought and creates an environment in which people manifest problems in multiple ways. This advisory firm operates by solving complex problems for its clients through investigative processes – so having employees from multiple backgrounds supports its success.

With 80% of team members being male, our client hoped to source a female addition to aid in diversifying their organisation and to attract a greater volume of females in the future. This role involved heavy hours, with long-term career progression not always viable which increased the difficulty of this mandate.

Strategy

Having previously sourced and placed candidates within the commercial advisory and transactions space, James adopted this mandate without previously working specifically within the IB space. James performed an extensive search from the outset. He first developed a market map with 450+ female, analyst-level bankers in Sydney. 253 individuals from this list were approached for the role. 63 went on to be engaged, 21 were phoned screened and 11 progressed to a formal interview.

Result

6 candidates were shortlisted and sent to the client for review. The final 3 came from different backgrounds ranging from big-4 to private equity and banking advisory, revealing the intense research completed to capture potential candidates across a range of skill sets.

One individual was hired into the firm who matched the skills and requirements outlined in the mandate. The successful candidate was confident, skilled and matched the values set out by our client in initial briefings. The entire search was wrapped up in 6 weeks (end to end), an impressive result following on from a year-long failed attempt by traditional recruitment methods.