The next step in my IT/Banking Career
Discussion
Hi all, looking for some much-needed career advice (apologies in advance for the long-winded post).
I'm in a similar position to Vorsprung Durch Technik in this thread (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=180&t=1671250) however there are some key differences so rather than hijack their thread I thought it better to start a new one. I'm 34 years old this year and feel as though I've hit a bit of a stalemate in terms of career. I would like to progress but I am struggling to decide what to do and determine what options I have.
To give some background; I started off in 2007 contracting in the Operations department (Back Office) of an Investment Bank in London. The following year the financial crisis hit so I opted to stay put since I'd been offered a permanent job and I actually loved the job. I eventually ended up staying until early 2011, when my role got TUPE'd to another bank who was a client of the first one. This was also a Back Office role, and after being there a few months I scored a Middle Office role, which had been my dream role at the time. Unfortunately, a few months into that, I had to leave the job and leave London in order to help my father out who was struggling with his business (back in Birmingham which is where I'm from). This was mid 2012.
Some eighteen months later, when the business was more stable again, I started working at a bank in Birmingham, back in an Ops role (Equity Ops this time as opposed to Derivative Ops in my previous roles). A further eighteen months on, our entire department has been relocated to Pune in India, and everyone was reassigned into various roles. This generally didn't go down well, and many moved onto pastures new (one thing in particular about Deutsche in Birmingham is that many new graduates use it as a stepping stone to jobs in the City and as such turnover is/was high - the team of six I was in turned over thirteen people in twelve months!). Anyway I digress. I generally did better than most in the role that I was offered during the reassignment, which was in IT, specifically L2 Application Support for the applications that I used in the BO role. It's important to note that prior to this I had very little knowledge of anything IT-related prior to this role.
I've now been in role for over two years. In the early days my colleagues benefitted more from my presence in the team because of my business knowledge, while I've slowly learned the basics of IT. By way of transferable skills, I have experience of UNIX to a moderate level and very basic SQL. I feel that most of what I've learnt so far is very specific to the team I'm in. I was the team junior when I joined and I still am, and I can't see that changing any time soon (my colleagues are all life-long IT professionals).
So the question is, where do I go from here? I have a degree and a Masters in Sciences, however I have no formal qualifications in either Banking or IT. For Banking, I started doing the IMC with a view to doing the CFA afterwards, however leaving my job and moving back to Birmingham put paid to that. I've looked at IT qualifications and the choices are bewildering to say the least.
I guess more so than anything I'm aiming for a more lucrative career; I currently earn the national average. I am open to moving to a role in Banking, IT or a mix of both.
An issue with Banking jobs are that there are few roles outside of London so it would necessitate commuting. This would be possible as I live near Birmingham International and can be at Euston in little over an hour and at a desk in maybe 90 minutes, however I would need in the region of 45k in order to justify the expense of a season ticket, and I don't know if that is feasible in the current market and with my experience (I was on 40k in my Middle Office role in 2012). Is it worth looking at qualifications? If so, which ones?
IT jobs are more widespread I guess but I don't know where to start! VDT's thread contains some useful advice but then I imagine I am currently in a more junior position than he/she is now.
So in summary, I'm at a bit of a stalemate and don't know where to go. Which career path do you feel would be more beneficial in terms of salary and future progression? Which would be more realistic given my skillset?
Thanks in advance.
I'm in a similar position to Vorsprung Durch Technik in this thread (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=180&t=1671250) however there are some key differences so rather than hijack their thread I thought it better to start a new one. I'm 34 years old this year and feel as though I've hit a bit of a stalemate in terms of career. I would like to progress but I am struggling to decide what to do and determine what options I have.
To give some background; I started off in 2007 contracting in the Operations department (Back Office) of an Investment Bank in London. The following year the financial crisis hit so I opted to stay put since I'd been offered a permanent job and I actually loved the job. I eventually ended up staying until early 2011, when my role got TUPE'd to another bank who was a client of the first one. This was also a Back Office role, and after being there a few months I scored a Middle Office role, which had been my dream role at the time. Unfortunately, a few months into that, I had to leave the job and leave London in order to help my father out who was struggling with his business (back in Birmingham which is where I'm from). This was mid 2012.
Some eighteen months later, when the business was more stable again, I started working at a bank in Birmingham, back in an Ops role (Equity Ops this time as opposed to Derivative Ops in my previous roles). A further eighteen months on, our entire department has been relocated to Pune in India, and everyone was reassigned into various roles. This generally didn't go down well, and many moved onto pastures new (one thing in particular about Deutsche in Birmingham is that many new graduates use it as a stepping stone to jobs in the City and as such turnover is/was high - the team of six I was in turned over thirteen people in twelve months!). Anyway I digress. I generally did better than most in the role that I was offered during the reassignment, which was in IT, specifically L2 Application Support for the applications that I used in the BO role. It's important to note that prior to this I had very little knowledge of anything IT-related prior to this role.
I've now been in role for over two years. In the early days my colleagues benefitted more from my presence in the team because of my business knowledge, while I've slowly learned the basics of IT. By way of transferable skills, I have experience of UNIX to a moderate level and very basic SQL. I feel that most of what I've learnt so far is very specific to the team I'm in. I was the team junior when I joined and I still am, and I can't see that changing any time soon (my colleagues are all life-long IT professionals).
So the question is, where do I go from here? I have a degree and a Masters in Sciences, however I have no formal qualifications in either Banking or IT. For Banking, I started doing the IMC with a view to doing the CFA afterwards, however leaving my job and moving back to Birmingham put paid to that. I've looked at IT qualifications and the choices are bewildering to say the least.
I guess more so than anything I'm aiming for a more lucrative career; I currently earn the national average. I am open to moving to a role in Banking, IT or a mix of both.
An issue with Banking jobs are that there are few roles outside of London so it would necessitate commuting. This would be possible as I live near Birmingham International and can be at Euston in little over an hour and at a desk in maybe 90 minutes, however I would need in the region of 45k in order to justify the expense of a season ticket, and I don't know if that is feasible in the current market and with my experience (I was on 40k in my Middle Office role in 2012). Is it worth looking at qualifications? If so, which ones?
IT jobs are more widespread I guess but I don't know where to start! VDT's thread contains some useful advice but then I imagine I am currently in a more junior position than he/she is now.
So in summary, I'm at a bit of a stalemate and don't know where to go. Which career path do you feel would be more beneficial in terms of salary and future progression? Which would be more realistic given my skillset?
Thanks in advance.
Edited by MikeLowry on Friday 16th June 13:40
I know RBS are in Brimingham, have you not thought about that time bomb?
It might not be my call, but how are you still a junior at 34 years old?
If in IT, you seem to be missing a lot of the IT related skills and thats me saying that from working in Equities/Derivatives for 2 very large banks and watching the Support staff move on to bigger and better things all the time. I wasnt in Support I was the designer of the systems.
It might not be my call, but how are you still a junior at 34 years old?
If in IT, you seem to be missing a lot of the IT related skills and thats me saying that from working in Equities/Derivatives for 2 very large banks and watching the Support staff move on to bigger and better things all the time. I wasnt in Support I was the designer of the systems.
Du1point8 said:
I know RBS are in Brimingham, have you not thought about that time bomb?
It might not be my call, but how are you still a junior at 34 years old?
If in IT, you seem to be missing a lot of the IT related skills and thats me saying that from working in Equities/Derivatives for 2 very large banks and watching the Support staff move on to bigger and better things all the time. I wasnt in Support I was the designer of the systems.
It's not RBS I'm at, but they're just down the road...It might not be my call, but how are you still a junior at 34 years old?
If in IT, you seem to be missing a lot of the IT related skills and thats me saying that from working in Equities/Derivatives for 2 very large banks and watching the Support staff move on to bigger and better things all the time. I wasnt in Support I was the designer of the systems.
As for still being a junior, it's just the way it's panned out - when my last role got shipped out to India, there weren't a great deal of roles within the Bank so when I got offered a way into IT with no IT experience, I went for it. I was the last member of the team to join, so I'm the most junior in terms of experience and length of service, and unless anyone leaves its unlikely to change.
Your Banking experience sounds more relevant to building a successful career than your recent IT role, but which do you enjoy most?
IT in general is perhaps less City/Wharf focussed but then again that is where most roles are especially with your knowledge, especially if you focus on the finance app ITAO type skills rather than the pure technical stuff.
Do you want to focus on technology regardless of industry, or is your thing being the link between business and IT and understanding both (inevitably to a lesser degree, but do it underestimate the skill required to be the 'glue!' in that situation).
It sounds to me like you would be better off in a more business focused role unless you are hell bent on the technical challenge.
I say this as a 20+ year IT guy, most of it in Banking on the infrastructure architecture/design/engineering side, and currently contracting for your employer. Don't think I know you though :-)
IT in general is perhaps less City/Wharf focussed but then again that is where most roles are especially with your knowledge, especially if you focus on the finance app ITAO type skills rather than the pure technical stuff.
Do you want to focus on technology regardless of industry, or is your thing being the link between business and IT and understanding both (inevitably to a lesser degree, but do it underestimate the skill required to be the 'glue!' in that situation).
It sounds to me like you would be better off in a more business focused role unless you are hell bent on the technical challenge.
I say this as a 20+ year IT guy, most of it in Banking on the infrastructure architecture/design/engineering side, and currently contracting for your employer. Don't think I know you though :-)
Firstly, ignore the London move. 90 minutes each way commuting will hurt, so unless you can move closer you're stuck with Birmingham in my opinion.
My career path has been ops (loans processing), ops change, BA, IT BA, now currently working in a Scrum team.
Am I right in thinking that you've moved into application support from an SME role within the team? What generic skills have you taken from that? Can you lead people, do you have any experience in project delivery?
There's good money in banking, irrespective of whether you're business or IT focused, so you may see a drop if you move out of that domain. What do you prefer - business or IT? Can you work towards any IT qualifications that would make you more marketable?
My career path has been ops (loans processing), ops change, BA, IT BA, now currently working in a Scrum team.
Am I right in thinking that you've moved into application support from an SME role within the team? What generic skills have you taken from that? Can you lead people, do you have any experience in project delivery?
There's good money in banking, irrespective of whether you're business or IT focused, so you may see a drop if you move out of that domain. What do you prefer - business or IT? Can you work towards any IT qualifications that would make you more marketable?
Quite late to this thread apologies but have you considered going into consulting? The big 4 and others are nearly always on the lookout for people who've worked in "industry" i.e. banks like Deutsche to give them a more rounded team than life long consultants. Maybe look at consulting roles in Tech or Finance, speak to a recruiter and really try to emphasise your extent of Middle and Back Office experience. I obviously don't know you or your skills but you're being criminally underpaid/ aren't making the most of your experience, in my opinion if you're actually on national average at the moment.
I'm sure there's a couple of the big 4 based in Birmingham, you'll likely be working with clients in London mainly but at least you'll be able to expense the trips down there so you'll keep all your pay!
I'm sure there's a couple of the big 4 based in Birmingham, you'll likely be working with clients in London mainly but at least you'll be able to expense the trips down there so you'll keep all your pay!
MikeLowry said:
So in summary, I'm at a bit of a stalemate and don't know where to go. Which career path do you feel would be more beneficial in terms of salary and future progression? Which would be more realistic given my skillset?
Thanks in advance.
Glass half full, as you have business and technical skills this means you could make yourself quite marketable if you make a few tweaks. There are plenty of I.T people who would jump at the chance to get some business exposure onto their C.V.Thanks in advance.
Birmingham is entering a new golden age and jobs have been transitioning to Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Manchester in their thousands out of the City and the Wharf since 2011.
The new HSBC HQ in Brum is a visible example but many back-office functions have been quietly moving out of London for almost several years without any press announcement.
I work in I.T within the City and outside of it and I can say for sure that the London party has been over since 2007 and if you don't have a plan B to get out, you should have. The fact you are already in Birmingham is a plus not a negative assuming a perm. job is OK.
Glass half empty, outside of the U.S investment banking is a busted flush (until the City de-regulates post Brexit) and they are treading water until then so, its not much of a problem to pick an I.T competency to get-into, it is more about the sector itself. You need to get out of banking.
DB itself is a basket-case, run don't walk.
Possible solution? I would get yourself accredited as an I.T security bod, combined with your business skills and done correctly you will be given lots of opportunities. I easily bounce between financial services sub-sectors e.g. Insurance. It won't be a problem for you to do the same and I would also consider working for a consultancy for 2 years in order to get some general financial sector experience (or maybe even outside of financial services).
Edited by Carl_Manchester on Thursday 6th July 21:06
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