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Creating Limitless Opportunities
The Roc Search
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Creating Limitless Opportunities
Welcome back,
James.
Here's what's happening across your recruitment activity today — your vacancies, your applications, and your community.
Active Vacancies
2
Chief Commercial Officer (+1 more)
My Applications
1
Head of Corp. Finance — 2nd Interview
Forum Posts
23
3 new replies this week
Your Points
840
Level: Rising Star ⭐
Recent Activity
Sophie Adeyemi moved to Interview Booked — Chief Commercial Officer
Today, 10:22am
New reply to your forum post: "Counter-offer situations"
Today, 9:05am
Your application: 2nd Interview confirmed — BlueSky Group
Yesterday, 4:30pm
Market Insight published: Q2 2026 FinTech Trends
26 May, 11:00am
Upcoming
2
Jun
Interview — Sophie Adeyemi
5
Jun
Your 2nd Interview — BlueSky Group
10
Jun
Search review call
Active Poll
What's your biggest hiring challenge right now?
Meridian Capital
Chief Commercial Officer
Hiring Manager: James Mitchell
Status
Open
Total Candidates
7
In Progress
4
Upcoming Interviews
2
Active Candidates
SA
Sophie Adeyemi
CCO, GrowthBridge Capital
Interviewed
MK
Marcus Keller
VP Sales, Pinnacle Group
Interview Booked
PV
Priya Varma
Commercial Director, ArcTech
CV Submitted
TD
Tom Docherty
Commercial Lead, Vertex Ltd
Accepted
JF
James Fletcher
Head of Sales, NovaCo
CV Submitted
My Job Search
Application Tracker
Track where you are in each live application. Visible only to you and your Roc Search consultant.
Open to Opportunities
Visible only to your Roc Search consultant — never shared with other clients or users.
Active
Head of Corporate Finance
BlueSky Group · Referred by Dan Clarke, Roc Search
✓
Submitted
✓
Shortlisted
✓
1st Interview
●
2nd Interview
Offer
Placed!
Your 2nd interview is confirmed for 5 June at 10:00am via video call. Dan will send you a full brief and prep guide by 3 June. Feel free to message him with any questions beforehand.
Community
Forum
Share insights, ask questions, and connect with the Roc Search community. Identity is kept professional — no company names or contact details.
24
📌 Pinned
Market Insights
Q2 2026 Market Report — Key Takeaways from the Roc Search Team
Our consultants have pulled together the key trends from Q2 — FinTech hiring is up 18%, but supply of senior candidates remains tight. Counter-offers are at a record high...
17
Hiring Advice
How are you handling counter-offer situations? Our candidates keep getting retained
We've had three offers rejected in the last month due to counter-offers. Interested to know whether others are seeing the same and what's working...
11
Career Chat
Best questions to ask at a 2nd stage interview — what's actually worked for you?
Going into a 2nd stage next week. Beyond the usual 'what does success look like' — what questions have genuinely impressed, or helped you make the right call on the role?
9
Market Insights
Is the candidate market really tightening in FinTech, or is it just London?
Been having a hard time sourcing mid-level quant analysts. Curious whether this is a sector-wide issue or just the London market getting squeezed...
5
General
Anyone else find that job title inflation is making benchmarking a nightmare?
Every 'Head of' role seems to mean something different now. Makes salary benchmarking and candidate levelling a constant headache across different company sizes...
3
Hiring Advice
What's a realistic turnaround for references? We're losing candidates to quicker movers
We got pipped to an offer acceptance twice this quarter while waiting on references. Is there a smarter way to run this in parallel with the process?
Thought Leadership
Market Insights
Analysis, trends and advice from the Roc Search team and the wider market.
FinTech
Q2 2026 FinTech Hiring Trends: Supply Crunch at Senior Level
Senior candidate supply in FinTech dropped 22% year-on-year, while demand held steady. What that means for your next search.
Retention
The Counter-Offer Problem: Why Top Candidates Keep Saying No
Record numbers of candidates are accepting counter-offers. We look at the psychology behind it and what employers can do differently.
Career
What Candidates Actually Want in 2026 (It's Not Just Salary)
Our survey of 400+ active and passive candidates reveals the real drivers of career moves — and what hiring managers are still getting wrong.
Leadership
The First 90 Days: How Newly Placed Executives Set Themselves Apart
Based on conversations with 30+ recently placed leaders, here's what makes the difference between a strong start and a shaky one.
Hiring
Why Your Job Spec is Costing You Great Candidates
Overly long or unrealistic specs are quietly killing searches before they start. How to write one that attracts rather than filters.
STEM
STEM Talent Pipeline 2026: Where Are All the Engineers Going?
Engineering talent is moving faster than ever — to startups, overseas, and into adjacent sectors. Our analysis of where demand is heading.
Direct Access
Ask a Consultant
Post a question and get a response from the Roc Search team. Useful answers become part of the shared knowledge base.
How should I handle a candidate who goes quiet after a verbal offer?
It's more common than people think. The key is to move quickly — a verbal offer left in limbo for more than 24 hours creates space for doubt or a counter-offer to land. Call, don't email. Ask directly what their hesitation is. If they've had another offer, find out the specifics. In most cases it's money, notice period anxiety, or cold feet about leaving — all addressable with the right conversation.
What's a realistic timeframe for a senior hire in FinTech right now?
In the current market, budget for 8–14 weeks from brief to offer. The bottleneck is usually interview scheduling, not candidate availability. Getting all interviewers aligned on a compressed process makes the single biggest difference — searches that drag beyond 12 weeks see a meaningful drop in offer acceptance rate.
Is now a good time to be looking for a senior finance role, or should I wait?
The short answer: don't wait. Passive timing rarely works in your favour. The best roles get filled before they're widely advertised, and having a conversation now means you're first in line when something right comes up. The market for strong senior finance candidates is competitive — being known and ready matters more than timing your entry.
Resources
Knowledge Base
Practical guides, templates and tips for candidates and hiring managers alike. No login required to read.
CV Writing Guide 2026
What hiring managers actually read, how to structure for ATS, and the mistakes that get you filtered out before anyone sees your name.
CV & Applications
Interview Preparation Checklist
From company research to post-interview follow-up — a step-by-step guide to showing up at your best and leaving a lasting impression.
Interviews
How to Negotiate an Offer
The right time to negotiate, what to push on, and how to do it without jeopardising the offer you've worked hard to reach.
Career
Writing a Job Specification That Works
Most specs attract the wrong candidates or put off the right ones. Here's how to write one that gets strong people applying.
Hiring Managers
Resignation Letter Templates
Three templates covering different situations — short notice, long tenure, and when things are complicated or sensitive.
CV & Applications
Counter-Offer: Accept or Decline?
The data on what happens to people who accept counter-offers — and a framework for thinking it through clearly under pressure.
Career
Onboarding Your New Hire Effectively
The first 30 days define whether a hire stays. What good onboarding actually looks like in practice, with or without an HR team.
Hiring Managers
Passive vs Active Candidates: The Difference
Why the best people aren't always looking, and how that changes the recruitment process from both sides of the table.
Career
Understanding the Hiring Market
A jargon-free guide to supply and demand dynamics, candidate psychology, and what really drives timelines and salary expectations.
Hiring Managers
Your Voice
Polls & Pulse Checks
Quick questions to understand what's on the community's mind. Results feed into our market insight reports.
What's your biggest hiring challenge right now?
Finding qualified candidates
42%
Speed of the hiring process
28%
Budget constraints
18%
Counter-offers and candidate drop-off
12%
Previous Poll — Closed
How confident are you in the UK job market for the rest of 2026?
Result: 54% said "cautiously optimistic" · 112 responses
Just for Fun
Games
A bit of fun with a recruitment flavour. Earn points for playing — 10 pts per correct answer.
Recruitment Trivia
Guess the Role 🎯
We describe a job without the title. You guess what it is.
Score: 0 correct out of 0 played
The Clues
Rewards
Points & Badges
Earn points for engaging with the platform, referring contacts, and hitting milestones with Roc Search.
⭐
Rising Star — 840 pts
160 points to your next level: Insider
0840 / 1,000
Your Badges
🚀
Early Adopter
One of the first 100 members on the platform
💬
Forum Contributor
Posted 20+ forum threads or replies
🤝
Placed!
Successfully placed through Roc Search
🎯
Super Connector
Refer 3 contacts who join the platform
📊
Poll Pioneer
Vote in 10 platform polls
🏆
Roc Royalty
Reach 2,500 points
⚡
Quick Mover
Accept an offer within 5 days of intro
🌟
Spotlight Star
Featured in a Roc Search Spotlight
Points History
Forum reply — counter-offer thread
Today
+10 pts
Voted in platform poll
25 May
+5 pts
Completed profile
24 May
+50 pts
Played Guess the Role (3 correct)
23 May
+30 pts
Placed! Milestone — Roc Search placed you at BlueSky Group
20 May
+200 pts
Forum Contributor badge unlocked
18 May
+100 pts
Early Adopter badge — joined platform
1 May
+100 pts
Refer & Earn
Refer a Contact, Earn 150 Points
Know someone who'd benefit from working with Roc Search? Share your code. If they engage with us, you both earn points — and if they get placed, you earn a bonus 500.
ROC-JM-2026
Member Spotlight
AP
🌟 This Month's Spotlight
Aisha Patel
Moved from Senior Analyst → Head of Data Strategy, NovaCo
I'd been in the same role for four years and didn't even know I was ready to move until Roc Search reached out. Six months in, it's the best decision I've made.