Elliott: Four years into this survey, there has been a tremendous amount of hiring in the analyst segment, and it just continues. This year, we'll continue to do more analyst searches than last year. Analysts are younger professionals and are at the beginning of their career. They may job hop more than at the end, and there are a lot of opportunities in the marketplace for them. We're seeing first-tier markets—San Francisco, Orange County, Seattle, L.A., Denver, Dallas, DC, New York—continuing to be in demand from employers right now, regardless of the fact that it's now mid-November.

This is the 14^th year for this company, and year one, when it was just me, I remember that when we got to Thanksgiving week, things slowed down quite a bit and stayed slow in December. Hiring does typically slow down, but there have been times when there was a pronounced slowdown or no slowdown. My prediction for the next 45 days, based on the new jobs orders/searches from this week alone is that it's not slowing down. The orders we start today, those candidates may start as early as January. (There's a heavy incentive comp, too, beginning in December. Candidates don't want to leave 30 to 45 days from getting that.)

GlobeSt.com: How has the importance of each factor—compensation, location and growth opportunity—changed over time?

Elliott: Compensation, growth potential and geographic location are the top three factors candidates value, and depending on where you are in your career, 1, 2 and 3 can be in a different order. In good economic cycles like we're in right now, employers are more open to moving somebody from location A to location B. They're more willing to pay that freight or at least consider it. From a candidate's perspective, if you extract geographic preferences based on where they grew up, the top markets are where people want to flock to: L.A./Orange County, New York, San Francisco. These are the markets that are extremely attractive. In past cycles, you wouldn't attract candidates to markets like Tucson or Portland in a boom period because there weren't as many opportunities out there.

GlobeSt.com: Is formal education becoming more or less relevant to success?

Elliott: I don't want to say that a formal education or advanced degree are less important—it provides you with connections, relationships, academic learning and certain skill sets you can't get any other way. The top 10% of candidates from a top university with an MBA or MRED will see financial gains, but the vast majority of professionals won't see gains as pronounced as the top 10% will. Experience is important, and education is the icing on the cake.