State of the Market

[nomadd]

Throughout my career I've worked in banking both as permie and as a contractor and I can't really say I enjoyed my time in such industry, but personally I found it so difficult to move away from it.

Even when I swore to myself I'd never work in banks again, I found a hard wall when applying for jobs in other sectors and ended up just moving from bank to bank.

I don't know why but other industries don't always see banking positively; most of the times I get the feeling they don't want to touch us with a 10 foot pole. Or maybe it's just me.

It's just you. My first contract with a Bank was 1992; my last was 2014. I moved freely between banking and other industries in those years (and outside of them) without a problem.

[ladymuck]

Throughout my career I've worked in banking both as permie and as a contractor and I can't really say I enjoyed my time in such industry, but personally I found it so difficult to move away from it.

Even when I swore to myself I'd never work in banks again, I found a hard wall when applying for jobs in other sectors and ended up just moving from bank to bank.

I don't know why but other industries don't always see banking positively; most of the times I get the feeling they don't want to touch us with a 10 foot pole. Or maybe it's just me.

Retail or investment banking? Two very different worlds.

[BlasterBates]

Throughout my career I've worked in banking both as permie and as a contractor and I can't really say I enjoyed my time in such industry, but personally I found it so difficult to move away from it.

Even when I swore to myself I'd never work in banks again, I found a hard wall when applying for jobs in other sectors and ended up just moving from bank to bank.

I don't know why but other industries don't always see banking positively; most of the times I get the feeling they don't want to touch us with a 10 foot pole. Or maybe it's just me.

There's no prejudice against banking experience. They only look at how relevant your skills are to their sector. If someone has more sector experience they're going to get the contract.

[PCTNN]

Retail or investment banking? Two very different worlds.

Retail.

One time, as a permie who wanted to move out of banking, I applied for a permanent role in a non banking company. The recruitment agency I applied through (so, not sure if I can believe it 100%) said the company was worried that, coming from a bank, I was accustomed to a certain salary/benefits and I would have jumped ship in X months after finding a better paying job.

There's this general opinion that banking salaries are much higher than they actually are. That's just not true nowadays, quite the opposite actually.

[nomadd]

Retail.

One time, as a permie who wanted to move out of banking, I applied for a permanent role in a non banking company. The recruitment agency I applied through..

So, in summary, you applied for one role and one agent said one client was unhappy with your Banking experience.

Time to move on, my friend. Time to move on.

[PCTNN]

So, in summary, you applied for one role and one agent said one client was unhappy with your Banking experience.

Time to move on, my friend. Time to move on.

Another time when you don't understand and just jump to conclusions...

Throughout my career I applied for I'd say around 10 permie roles for non banking companies: got job offers from 2 of those, then jacktulip for the remaining 8. And of those 8 that snobbed me, I have that one piece of feedback from the agent.

On the other hand, when I apply for jobs in banking, permie or contract, it's almost a one shot one kill situation.

I can't make it anymore clear than this, so if you still need help after this post, maybe it's time for you to move on

[nomadd]

Another time when you don't understand and just jump to conclusions...

Throughout my career I applied for I'd say around 10 permie roles for non banking companies: got job offers from 2 of those, then jacktulip for the remaining 8. And of those 8 that snobbed me, I have that one piece of feedback from the agent.

On the other hand, when I apply for jobs in banking, permie or contract, it's almost a one shot one kill situation.

I can't make it anymore clear than this, so if you still need help after this post, maybe it's time for you to move on

I do wonder if that "testy nature" of yours has something to do with your inability to land contracts..? Just a thought.

[vwdan]

It's just you. My first contract with a Bank was 1992; my last was 2014. I moved freely between banking and other industries in those years (and outside of them) without a problem.

Same, though it might be the nature of my work being somewhat agnostic. People like to know you can handle the environment, but beyond that I managed a pretty seamless move from very public sector type work into finance and investment banking and out again.

[PCTNN]

I do wonder if that "testy nature" of yours has something to do with your inability to land contracts..? Just a thought.

contracts? I thought we were talking about permanent jobs....well, I surely was.

does it happen to you often to read something but understand the opposite? maybe it's just not your day. Just relax.

[rocktronAMP]

Another time when you don't understand and just jump to conclusions...

Throughout my career I applied for I'd say around 10 permie roles for non banking companies: got job offers from 2 of those, then jacktulip for the remaining 8. And of those 8 that snobbed me, I have that one piece of feedback from the agent.

On the other hand, when I apply for jobs in banking, permie or contract, it's almost a one shot one kill situation.

I can't make it anymore clear than this, so if you still need help after this post, maybe it's time for you to move on

I'd also chip in here to say I also say your experience is definitely PRE Covid 19. One can argue that old banking world is gone as far as I can tell from the forum threads, which have mentioned continual contract rate cuts, and outsourcing to South Asian or near shoring.

I worked in investment banking IT as it was called for a decade or more, and suddenly then the corporate restructuring came and went. I found a London contract gig at a digital agency and worked with Photoshop/ Illustrator people, graphic designers, copywriters and people who actually stood up at Agile 9:30am. This agency had the contracts with Virgin Atlantic, Tescos, Sainsbury's etc. My world of work changed. Proper A-G-I-L-E. Agile as in circa mid-2012 ish with a dose of LEAN/Kanban as opposed to banking Fr-Agile and "we only do our way of SCRUM here".

Investment Banking IT is a closed world and probably outsiders might have thouight that you were probably stuck in your ways, no offence.

(Caveat emptor: No offence - I have no idea how the fintech companies - so-called fast paced startups / restartups are doing things - e.g. the Monzos , the Revoluts, boutique fund managers / emerging markets houses with head counts less 50 people etc )