What is Driving Finance & Accounting Hiring Right Now?

According to our 2025 Talent Report, most professionals were satisfied with both their base salary and bonus payouts this year.

• Bonus structures are largely consistent, with less variability than revenue-generating functions.
• Buy-side firms tend to offer slightly higher total comp than their sell-side counterparts, particularly for mid to senior-level roles.
• Executive-level titles (CFO, COO, CAO) are where compensation sees the biggest lift.

Candidate movement doesn’t follow the same patterns as other sectors. While compensation remains important, long-term career growth and role visibility are often stronger motivators. As a result, hiring in this space is less reactive to regulatory changes and more commonly driven by team expansion, backfills, or strategic structural upgrades.

• Hiring managers: Be clear about what makes you different - what the candidate’s role will grow into, how they’ll impact the business, and what visibility they’ll have internally. Compensation matters, but so does purpose.
• Candidates: Know your business. If you want to stand out, understand how your firm makes money, how to speak commercially, and what your next steps look like. There’s no one path to CFO, but there is a way to be intentional.