Archive for 2022

Credit Suisse is increasingly offering audit jobs in Zurich

Posted by / 1. April 2022 / Categories: Job Market, Company News / -

As an evaluation of the job exchange Indeed shows, one company in the greater Zurich area that is currently increasingly hiring in the area of internal audit stands out, namely Credit Suisse.

An autonomous search was carried out for jobs with the keywords audit, revision, auditor or revisor in the job title or in the job description within a radius of 60 km from Zurich on the indeed.com job board. The data was then adjusted (exclusion of internship and working student positions, vacancies in the hotel industry, audit job offers from executive search consultants and standardization of company and city names), leaving 186 audit jobs for further analysis. Of course, not all jobs with the keywords used are “real” audit jobs, but rather risk management jobs, compliance jobs, controlling jobs. In addition to audit, the most common words in the job descriptions were business, compliance, data and risk. Moreover, a background in auditing is often a great basis for other career paths, which is why audit-relevant keywords are reflected in the job advertisements. For the sake of simplicity, all audit-relevant jobs are referred to as audit jobs in the following.

Most jobs for auditors at Credit Suisse

Results: Among the top 10 companies in the Zurich area with the most vacancies for audit jobs are of course the auditing companies PWC, KPMG, EY, Grant Thornton and Mazars, whose core competence is conducting audits. However, Credit Suisse is currently in first place with around 44 internal audit jobs. This means that more than 3 times as many jobs are vacant as at the main competitor UBS (14 auditing vacancies).

 Credit Suisse PwC UBS KPMG EY True Wealth Grant Thornton Connect Mazars Liebherr-International
Top ten companies by number of audit jobs in greater Zurich area

The majority, namely approx. 86% of external audit jobs, are located directly in Zurich and only a fraction in neighboring cities and cantons such as Zug, Winterthur, Pfäffikon, Opfikon and Nussbaumen.

Audit Jobs in Nussbaumen, 
Audit Jobs in Opfikon,
Audit Jobs in Pfäffikon,
Audit Jobs in Winterthur,
Audit Jobs in Zug,
Audit Jobs in Zürich
Top locations in the greater Zurich area for audit jobs

Credit Suisse offers home office audit jobs

The graphic below is also interesting. More than half of the Credit Suisse audit jobs at indeed.com are marked as home office jobs. In the “Location” field, “Home Office” was entered next to the city and canton. We have not checked to what extent other companies also offer the possibility of partial or complete remote work. However, it is known that, among other things, auditing companies carry out the audits at the customer’s site.

Homeoffice jobs at BEPC Inc	
Dialectic Ag, PwC, UBS,Viseca Card Services, Zurich Gruppe,
Credit Suisse
Top Companies by Number of Home Office Audit Jobs

German is required for around 70% of audit jobs

Of particular interest to auditors who want to move to Switzerland for career reasons, but also to other foreigners: In German-speaking Switzerland, “German” is still an important requirement for audit jobs. Because about 70% of the advertised jobs are either advertised in German or German language skills are at least mentioned.

Knowledge of German required for Zurich audit jobs
Knowledge of German required for Zurich audit jobs

As is so often the case in Zurich, when it comes to internal audit jobs, it can be observed that the more international the employer, the less important German language skills become. In almost a third of the UBS audit jobs and around half of the Credit Suisse audit jobs, knowledge of German is not an issue at all and the job advertisements are in English. Other international banks such as Citi or commodity trading houses are joining the ranks, as this chart on non-German audit jobs is intended to show.

Top companies by number of non-German audit jobs
Top companies by number of non-German audit jobs

No placement fee for Ukrainian refugees

Posted by / 22. March 2022 / Categories: Company News / Tags: , , / -

It is already the 27th day of the war in Ukraine and there are no signs of the conflict ending anytime soon. As a result, the number of Ukraine refugees registered in Germany is steadily increasing and is now estimated at over 225.000 or more.

EU decision makes it possible for Ukrainian refugees to start work

We Executive Search Consultants know from personal contacts that there is a great deal of interest in finding work in Germany as quickly as possible in order to provide financial support for the relatives who remain in the Ukraine. Refugees were initially concerned about the lengthy asylum procedures with the accompanying ban on employment, which fortunately are not necessary due to the activation of the so-called mass influx directive by the EU. Because the protection status, which is regulated by this EU directive, means that refugees from the Ukraine do not have to apply for asylum, but receive a residence permit that enables them to work, do an apprenticeship or study in Germany.

According to this, Ukrainians who want to work in this country do not have to report a job change to an authority, nor do they have to go through a professional recognition procedure for unregulated activities, they have “comprehensive access to the labour market”. For all other professions, the regulations of the respective professional groups apply.

Ukraine strong in science and engineering

Even if there are no exact statistics so far, it can be assumed that the majority of employable Ukrainian refugees are women, because men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country due to the war. Refugee males aged 18-60 are believed to be foreigners themselves but have a residence permit for Ukraine. It is not yet possible to foresee how many of these refugee women will actually be available for the job market, since the majority of them will possibly take care of their children and families. Overall, preliminary estimates from the Zeit assume that at least 50 percent of the “refugees” are academics.

According to Kooperation International, one of the strengths of the Ukrainian education system is the comparatively high proportion of university graduates who graduate in technical subjects. Ukraine thus surpasses the average values ​​of the OECD.

With regard to the professional profile and scientific publications, a specialization in the following fields can be determined (selection based on the specialization index country share/world share ≥ 1.3):

  • Physics and astronomy (20.1 percent, world: 7.8 percent, Germany: 9.6 percent)
  • Engineering (14.9 percent, world: 10 percent, Germany: 9.3 percent)
  • Materials science (12.6 percent, world and Germany: 6.0 percent)
  • Mathematics (7.6 percent, world: 4.3 percent and Germany: 4.6 percent)
  • Energy (4.5 percent, world: 2.1 percent, Germany: 1.6 percent).

Source: Kooperation International

Language barrier could make integration on the job market more difficult

On the other hand, integration into the German labour market could make language skills more difficult, especially with regard to English and German.

According to the EF English Proficiency Index , Ukraine ranks only in the middle, ranking 40th at the “Intermediate” level. So far little is known about knowledge of German and this will only be available in exceptional cases, for example through a linguistics degree or private courses. At least one can say that in the past there was quite a bit of interest in learning German,. According to Welt, Ukraine was the 5th country with the most learners of German.

Free recruiting out of solidarity with refugees from Ukraine

Due to this situation, we, as a executive search consultant for the financial sector at White Horse International, have decided to also set an example and to support refugees from Ukraine, to accelerate their integration in Germany and the German labour market. For the next six months ( Extension possible) we will not charge any placement commissions from our customers such as banks, insurance companies, asset management companies and other financial service providers, should one of our proposed candidates for a vacant position be an Ukrainian refugee. This of course applies to all Ukrainians as well as other foreigners who have also fled Ukraine due to the Russian invasion.

Our executive search and recruitment services are and will always be free of charge for candidates.