Trilogy Talent Advisors’ Managing Partner, John Touey, recently contributed to CFO Brew’s latest research report, The State of Finance Hiring & Careers, in which Morning Brew surveyed 352 finance and accounting executives about their hiring challenges, talent needs, and the growing impact of AI. The findings align closely with what we’re seeing every day in the market.
Hiring Is Taking Longer — For Good Reason
Sixty percent of finance leaders surveyed said hiring is harder now than in previous years, and 41% report it takes three to six months to fill an open role. John offered some perspective on why:
“Supply and demand is by far the largest issue in the length of the hiring cycle. Many qualified professionals who would be willing to make a change in a robust economy are more inclined to sit tight in the current one. There is a real LIFO fear in the candidate pool because they see how long it’s taking their unemployed peers or newly graduated kids to find a job.”
The Real Problem Is a Skills Mismatch
Survey respondents ranked strategic thinking and problem-solving (77%), AI and automation proficiency (63%), and advanced data and analytics (59%) as the most critical skills for the next generation of finance professionals. The challenge? These aren’t skills the traditional finance pipeline has been built to produce. As John noted:
“Strategic thinking, AI fluency, and data analytics are not areas in which we have traditionally trained our finance and accounting professionals. The function is being asked to evolve faster than the talent pipeline can adapt, and it seems like the gap is widening.”
This has created what John describes as a structural mismatch: organizations are searching for a fundamentally different profile than what is most readily available in today’s talent pool.
What It Takes to Win
For organizations competing for top finance talent, the survey is clear: compensation matters (72% cited competitive pay as the top retention tool), but so does career development, flexible work, and strong leadership communication. The candidates we work with want to know where the role leads, not just what it pays today.
For those who want to dig into the complete data and insights, you can find the full CFO Brew survey report here: The State of Finance Hiring & Careers
