Edinburgh for contracts

[TestMangler]

Also opportunities at

Standard Life

Scottish Widows

Sainsbury's Bank

Scottish Widows Investments

Virgin Money

Its a good market here to be honest. Smaller than London obviously but I havent met many contractors who are out of work for long.

I haven't had to look to Glasgow for about 10 years but the market seems to be getting better there recently.

Stirling has a small contract market as does Aberdeen (Oil and Gas obviously) and very occasionally Dundee.

Agencies I use are Head, RZ, Lorien, Bedenoch and Clarke, Projects Partners have an office here too

Add Aegon to that as well....

[Zero Liability]

That's great, thanks for all the agency/client names. I definitely will be paying Edinburgh a visit in the near future. It sounds like it's quite good for contracts but I will check the opportunities on offer from those agencies. I think the financial sector is under so much heat that financial contracting won't be dying out any time soon. Regardless, my plan is to work in contracting for another year or two, do some graduate work, hopefully at one of the Big Six accountancy firms, then move back into contracting after a few years.

I dont agree Edinburgh has a bigger financial sector than Manchester. There's quite a few large and smaller financial clients in greater Manchester plus, leeds (which is the biggest outside london) is only about 30 miles away.

Well I am going to evaluate it based on what happens with this high speed rail thing. London might become a lot more commutable for contracts if it goes through, and yes, I am aware of Leeds, so that is why I am still considering Manchester. The other option is to move to one of the satellite towns that are commutable to London but not in it. Though London is a city I am considering as an absolute last resort.

[Vandalay]

I made the move from London to Edinburgh back in 2010 and have never looked back. There are all the regular agencies up here plus a few which are scotland only.

Tesco bank hasn't been mentioned either, also both Widows and Standard life have fund management businesses up here too. There are a number of small asset management companies in addition to all of the above.

Bright purple and Change recruitment are great up here. I have tonnes of Edinburgh agents on Linked in, PM me if you would like any introductions.

Also with transport, EDI airport is well connected for domestic flights and I've had no problems getting to other offices in the UK from here.

Rates are on average slightly lower I suppose, mainly because it's mostly retail banking over investment banking. I've still had a number of good BA contracts on 400-500 and I know of plenty of PM roles that have been filled at >600. That said there are a LOT of crap contracts out there - recently got approached for an MI dev role in Glasgow @200pd.

One other tip - don't bother with Glasgow. It's a dump. Edinburgh is a wonderful place to live.

[Vandalay]

For finance, try Head for LBG / Clydesdale, Bright Purple for Tesco (although covered by Head too), Hays for RBS then consider Networkers for SKY especially if technical, such as a solution architect. Most are on the job boards though.

Good luck

Just spotted this - apologies for repeating. Badenoch also do a lot of the RBS stuff.

[Torran]

One other tip - don't bother with Glasgow. It's a dump. Edinburgh is a wonderful place to live.

A bit harsh. Its a post industrial city with many good points. Its also way cheaper to live there than in Edinburgh.

Given the choice for quality of life Edinburgh wins hands down though and would trump most UK cities.

[Vandalay]

A bit harsh. Its a post industrial city with many good points. Its also way cheaper to live there than in Edinburgh.

Given the choice for quality of life Edinburgh wins hands down though and would trump most UK cities.

Probably, but I supposed I'm biased after 3 yrs in Edinburgh.