Pat Hayes, who heads up State Street’s hedge fund business in Ireland, meets with members of its 1,000 strong workforce through an employee townhall meeting that brings together local employees and the teams in Jersey, Poland and the US. The townhall meeting gives him a chance to meet with employees and brief them on the company’s performance. State Street’s hedge fund business services a significant proportion of the 40 per cent of the world’s alternative investment funds that are adminstered in Ireland and Hayes says ‘we will continue to grow the business and provide opportunities for the many talented and highly qualified people in Ireland.’

A career in financial services consulting can provide so many very different career paths and learning opportunities, that it's a good idea not to start out in this career with too fixed an idea of what you will be doing, recommends Gillian Comerford, who works with Accenture. Consultants need to be able to listen, be flexible, and be open to exploring every opportunity that comes along, she says, as sometimes the greatest and most unexpected of outcomes can stem from what initially appear to be very mundane opportunities.