If anyone had told me a few months ago that July and August would turn into one of the busiest stretches of the year, I might have raised an eyebrow.
Traditionally, this is the point in the calendar when things begin to soften. Decision-makers disappear on holiday, hiring processes drift, and projects that felt urgent in June suddenly develop a September timeline. This year, though, the market seems to have had other ideas.
Across the last couple of months, I’ve seen a real flurry of interim activity, with assignments completed across Internal Controls, Tax, CFO leadership and Finance Business Partnering. What has stood out just as much as the volume is the breadth. The demand hasn’t been concentrated in one niche or one type of business – it has come from right across the market, including manufacturing, professional services, recruitment, pharma, telecoms, and engineering/construction.
That breadth tells its own story. Businesses in very different sectors are facing very similar pressures: the need for experienced finance leadership, sharper control environments, specialist technical support, and people who can step in quickly and make an impact. Interim solutions continue to be a vital part of that mix.
What has been especially striking is that the momentum hasn’t let up as we’ve moved deeper into August. Just when I thought things might begin to quieten down, the opposite happened. I’ve had requests to help write proposals for a couple of senior roles, alongside a client asking for support after their internal recruitment team came up short with a fairly unimaginative LinkedIn trawl.
That, in itself, says something important about the current market. Finding the right senior finance talent still takes more than a keyword search and a standard outreach message. The strongest candidates are rarely sitting in plain sight, and the best processes still rely on insight, network, judgement and a more tailored approach.
I’m certainly not complaining. Quite the opposite. But in my experience, it is rare to be this busy at this time of year.
It will be interesting to see whether this is simply an unusually active summer or a sign that businesses are becoming more willing to move quickly, even during periods that were once seen as slow. Either way, the demand is there, and it is coming from multiple angles: delivery, leadership, transformation and hiring.
For anyone watching the interim and senior finance market closely, this summer has been a useful reminder that seasonality still matters – but not always in the way you expect.