Making Treasury Sexy

How to Attract Young Talent

With skills shortages reported across Europe and companies competing to attract talented young professionals, is corporate treasury regarded as an attractive career path by graduates? TMI learns about the next generation’s expectations and considers whether companies are doing enough to meet them.

Corporate treasury offers good career opportunities, but as Europe’s skill shortages intensify are they enough to attract young financial professionals and graduates? It’s an important question given the shifting nature of the role, but also the fact that many industry professionals do not start their career with ‘treasury’ as the ultimate destination.  Often, treasurers we have interviewed in TMI, have explained how they moved into the function at a later stage in their career, or in several cases their role in treasury came about “by accident”.

Making treasury into a sought-after profession from the get-go, and encouraging young talent to enter the ranks of the profession early on is no mean feat. But there are individuals who are taking up this mantle on behalf of the treasury community. Cornelia Hesse, who recently retired from the board of the European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT), for many years headed the cash management department of the European shared services organisation at German chemicals producer BASF. For many years, she has been dedicated to encouraging young talent to consider a career in treasury.

“It’s probably still true to say that many financial professionals enter treasury at some point during their career rather than at the start of it,” she reports. “However, the situation is  improving and Germany’s universities now offer treasury and finance streams as well as holding ‘treasury days’ to give students an idea of career opportunities.

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