Fintech’s Talent Gap: How AI Is Changing Jobs, Hiring and Career Growth

And also you're working in fintech industry, so it makes even more specific everything.

And I think that your own journey also gives like a very personal side of the recruitment.

But through Harrington Star, you've seen like how fintech companies building their teams, what skills they're looking for, how they assess people and maybe how the talent market changed.

So I'd love to look on the industry side as well.

FinTech changes very rapidly.

And since you started, the market also changed a lot.

So what are the biggest changes you've seen in the FinTech space and the roles companies are hiring for the past few years?

So, it's been fascinating to watch.

Like, I've absolutely loved it.

You know, if we roll all the way back to 2010 when we started the business, you know, we, of course, had relationships with, you know, your traditional financial services players.

But as fintech started to grow and challenge the traditional ways of finance… And this wonderful thing appeared and, you know, it was purposeful businesses, mission-led businesses, which has just made recruitment so much more enjoyable to understand, like, what are the drivers behind each of these businesses and what are you trying to achieve? And actually, when you're trying to support somebody in their next role, being able to match their personal drivers with that of a business is, to me, that's what recruitment's all about because that's when people give their best work.

And when they're learning at such a pace.

And I think, you know, over the past couple of years, we've seen a bit of a decline in that, which has been so disappointing.

But let's just remember what's happened in the past few years.

We had the post-pandemic boom, right, which fintechs, payments, like, wow, they were just, you know, loving life.

Everyone was online.

When we think about all the digitalization of cash, there's so many things to think about.

We've also seen the real onset and implementation of AI and the adoption on mass scale.

There's been huge changes.

But after that boom, after the pandemic, there's been a huge focus on fintechs where I would say the valuation bubble burst significantly.

You know, like you remember sort of post-pandemic, it was this fintech's valued at that, that's valued at that.

But actually, what were their profits? And then we had sort of 2024 where all the news was what the real profits are.

And there's no point if you're spending 100 grand and you're bringing in 20, well, then you can't just say you're making 20 grand.

You're actually losing 80.

And I know I've really simplified that, but actually this was the story.