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Nothing ever remains staid for long in the realm of internet search. Only this afternoon, a little-known firm called Microsoft, is interested in building its online advertising empire with the acquisition / merger (depending on what report you read) of another little company you may have heard of, called Yahoo!

This is indeed, big news! Its, what is known in the finance market, a “Whopper!” of a news story! But what does it all mean and who benefits?

The benefits from this news are apparent from today’s NASDAQ figures. The market was so buoyed by the rumour, that the Yahoo! share price jumped a massive 19% from $5.19 at opening to $33.37 within minutes of the news being released. A quick glance at Bloomberg also shows that this is the greatest jump Yahoo! has seen in 4 1/2 years! If I were a Yahoo! shareholder I’d be dancing in the streets just now!

Interestingly, the news didn’t do much for Microsoft’s share price which were down slightly by 1.7% to $30.47 (at time of writing). Doesn’t this seems strange? Well it is on the face of it.

However, despite recent efforts to break into online advertising, Microsoft have struggled to make headway against the current search engine of choice: Google. This means that software remains Microsoft’s biggest profit driver, and spending the whopping amount of $50billion to acquire a company in the area you’re least experienced – not to mention least profitable – makes people nervous.

Especially city people!

Chris Cathcart, finance vertical strategist for bigmouthmedia said of the proposed deal:

“Recent years have not been kind to Yahoo!, and their growth has been slowing down. Last quarter, their revenue growth was 7% – the first time its been below 10% in five years. This deal will be good for both them and Microsoft as the deal will take Microsoft’s online market share (in the US) from 12% to 38.5% in comparison to rival Google’s’ 48% market share.”

However, it’s all yet to be seen if any deal is actually going to transpire as both Yahoo! and Microsoft are giving the media the traditional “No Comment” response. On a personal level, I hope it does go through: its been a while that anything this exciting happened in the markets – let alone the search engine industry.

And its good to see Microsoft getting back into the things they’ve been renowned for in the past, with the return of their in-famous “Can’t beat ‘em, Buy ‘em!” attitude. The difference is this time they are taking on a big dog! And big dogs often bite!

The current rough state of economy doesn’t mean that there will be absolutely no finance jobs. It just means that the finance jobs will be fewer, and the competition for them will be steeper. So if you are a finance professional, and happen to be looking for a finance job in these tough economic times, here are three steps, which if properly taken, can push you ahead of the pack in the competition for the few finance jobs available.

1.     Update Your Skill Set. Unique circumstances call for unique skills, if one is to sail through them successfully. Most professionals looking for the top finance jobs right now are equipped with skill-sets which were adequate for the better times, but which might be considered inadequate for the current circumstances. Simply put, to beat your competitors in the search for top finance jobs, you will need to have skills that they don’t have. Having a unique skill-set gives an employer a reason to consider you for a job in preference to another candidate. And this applies whether you are looking for the top finance jobs in the financial sector, the middle office finance jobs in governments and non-profit organizations or even for the more ordinary commerce and industry accounting jobs.  The unique skills in question need not be anything really fancy. Having, for example, a certificate in project management (which you can earn in a couple of weeks) puts you ahead of another candidate without such a certificate, even if you have the same basic qualification. Similarly if you are looking for commerce and industry accounting jobs, you might be well advised to approach the potential employer armed with at least some basic understanding of the workings of the business or industry you are considering working in. Armed with such a basic understanding of the underlying industry or business puts you at least one step ahead of another equally qualified finance expert who lacks such understanding.

2.     Work on Your Resume. The presentation of your resume can make a great difference in your search for top finance jobs, and is likely to have an influence on the employer, even before they get to look at its contents.  You might consider enlisting the help of a professional resume service, to help with the presentation of your resume. Remember the number of otherwise qualified candidates who get otherwise shoved out of the recruitment process simply because of poor resume presentation is huge – ensure you don’t fall for the same trap.

3.     Consider enlisting the help of a finance recruitment agency. In a bid to reduce the workload involved in the recruitment process, many employers are increasingly turning to recruitment agencies for their staffing needs. This is especially true for executive jobs, like the top finance jobs, whose recruitment process might involve some level of head-hunting, and which employers might feel uneasy doing themselves, preferring to delegate it to recruitment agencies instead. Many employers are also increasingly turning to these finance recruitment agencies even for jobs which don’t necessarily involve head-hunting, like commerce and industry accounting jobs and other middle office finance jobs. This means that anyone looking for any sort of finance job is best advised to at least deposit their resume with the one of the major finance recruitment agencies. These finance recruitment agencies usually charge very nominal fees for their services, and the services they provide are very often worth what they charge.