“Sales skills are really on the rise,” said Nadia Edwards-Dashti, Chief Customer Officer at Harrington Star, while speaking to Finance Magnates’ Jonathan Fine at FMLS:24. The discussion explored the future of talent recruitment, the rise of sales roles, and how AI is reshaping the industry—without replacing the human touch.
Edwards-Dashti co-founded Harrington Star, a London-based recruitment agency specialising in financial technology, in 2010 and has since played a key role in the company.
“We Are Seeing an Increase in New Sales Positions”
“We have been going through a two-year pause in growth generally across the whole industry,” added Edwards-Dashti. “Many people in marketing, strategy, and innovation have become redundant, and companies have carried on. They've carried on by ensuring they are investing in people who are functioning. What they are now starting to see is that some money is coming back into the industry.”
“Thus, we are seeing an increase in new sales positions, as well as in strategy and innovation.”
Finance Magnates earlier reported that the salaries for sales roles in the FX and CFDs industry in London and Dubai are significantly higher than in Cyprus.
AI Tools Lack “People Factor”
Another interesting highlight in the recruitment space is the rise of AI-centric roles.
“In skills, people are talking about AI,” Edwards-Dashti continued. “It’s really interesting to see many people still talk about AI in terms of the good, the bad, and the ugly; how we can use it; how we can moderate it; how we can make sure that it’s safe; and how we can ensure this balance of efficiency and empathy.”
Meanwhile, AI has also made strides in the recruitment industry. According to a study by Workable across the US and the UK, 62.5% of participants reported using some form of AI during the hiring process. In particular, 70% of respondents in finance and 62.7% in technology used AI to scan and rank CVs automatically.
“AI tools receive 1,000 applications for roles. But that AI tool may not notice that one of those people went to an event, introduced themselves, and said, ‘Hey, I did this application.’ Suddenly, we’re back to people being people,” Edwards-Dashti added.
“I have invested my whole career in understanding people's personalities, and that is how I have always recruited—from 20 years ago until now. So, when there is a query about something on a CV, there must be a story behind it. But AI wouldn’t have that. I think this is where we will see two different paths forming in the future of talent. That will be something that can never be taken from us, including empathy, the people factor, and advocacy.”
She, however, added that “some of the larger firms will have to go down the AI route simply to get through 2,000 CVs.”
“Fraud, Fraud, Fraud”
Edwards-Dashti is also an Executive Board Member at the European Women Payments Network (EWPN), a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to building a community for women working in finance, cards, fintech, and payments in Europe.
She highlighted that one thing dominating the fintech space now is payment “fraud,” adding that “the feedback from the industry needs to be more collaboration between some of the banks, fintechs, and regulators.”
“Across the board, we’re seeing more compliance jobs,” she added when addressing the industry fraud issue. “We’re seeing lots of layers of compliance jobs as well. So, maybe 3-4 years ago, you’d have a smaller compliance team that had to cover everything. Now, these teams are becoming bigger within organisations of the same size and have more layers to what they’re doing, who they’re talking to, and what their responsibilities are. I think this is another fascinating turn in the future of payments in this industry because I think a lot of us focus on what jobs we’re losing rather than what jobs we’re gaining.”
