My new job in a London Investment Bank

[Pyramus]

Hi,

I'm starting a new permanent job with a large Investment Bank in London in about 3 weeks, which to be honest I'm looking forward to, but am slightly nervous in some ways too.

It's a new arena for me, after 5 years working in software houses. But I figured if I can, why not get paid double to what I am now and go work for a bank.

If you've ever worked for an investment bank, I'd be interested to hear about your experiences.

I'm less interested to hear from people who have worked on IT infrastructure- more from programmers who have worked on business IT development e.g. trading applications.

 

[h0h0h0]

I work in the trading field and was just thinking "Man - I can go my whole life and not write another position report - and I wouldn't be sad"

 

[jrbarnett]

I used to work for a company that developed position keeping systems for commodity traders, amongst others.

In my case, the company was small, and everybody did a bit of everything (ie there were no business analysts, programmers, DBAs etc). Therefore, being a jack of all trades from a technical point was very important.
I found that having a clear understanding of the business processes was more essential than in depth knowledge of the tools/languages in use. It allowed you to communicate with the clients directly using their language, and use these terms within the software and documentation where appropriate.

Good luck with your new job. If you've not done anything like this before, its a very steep learning curve.

John

 

[h0h0h0]

jr: Sounds like a great place. This company that I'm at now is very much into pigeonholing thier people. Not a lot of exposure to other stuff going on.

 

[LadySlinger]

I previously worked for a bank...but it covered all the basis: investment, savings, relationship, mortgages, etc. It was a local bank, but with a small town attitude. I'm not sure how the banker's personality is in the UK, but get use to people getting in to your personal business. I remember when I left there my boss hadn't even finished pressing "Send" when the head gossip queens were in my cubical wondering where I was going, how much it paid, if it was closer to home, why I wanted to leave...you get the drift.

 

[chiph]

http://www.wallstreetprogrammer.com/2006/02/08/office-characters/

(warning, some offensive language -- he *is* from New York after all)


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[Pyramus]

He seems angry about something.

 

[chiph]

He's a New Yorker. They all sound like that.

Plus, I suspect he's on the edge of burn-out.

Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[Chance1234]

Ive worked for several in London, I had one of my best work experience and one of my worst.

the good one, was working on a money laundering investigation, was well looked after (cabs, meals, lots of nights out) and was very interesting work (post 9/11) and flaming ferraris. Good team , good people lots of money earnt

Worst
Working on a trading floor doing portfolio risk, Extremly long hours, arrogant [insert explicitives] traders, arrogant analysts.Over the top Competitive atmorsphere (daft things like staying out clubbing till 5 in the morning and coming straight into work and doing it all again). Very tough work but end of day earnt lots of money.

I think your motivation has to be money, go in expecting to earn lots of money and you wont be dissapointed. go in for anything else then be prepared.



Chance,

Filmmaker, taken gentleman and He tan e epi tas

 

[Pyramus]

Thanks for the insight.

So have you suffered burnout or moved out of Banking before that happened?

I'm prepared for arrogance a-plenty and people who think they're gods gift. You're right though, the motivation is money- why else would I subject myself to increased stress and longer hours?

I expect everyone's experiences to be different really, just depends on the team you end up in and the culture of the bank.

 

[Chance1234]

moved out before that happened !

Chance,

Filmmaker, taken gentleman and He tan e epi tas