State of the Market

[TheDude]

Because the city seems to be something of a closed shop which is difficult to get into if your CV shows experience elsewhere and to an extent people who work in the City don't work elsewhere if they can help it. Again I am only going on people I know who work there and what I read on here but it does seem to be something of a macho culture where long hours are expected and some very extreme background checking.

Let me add I have nothing against the City as I am sure the work can be fascinating. In my Permanent days I worked for a Share Registrar and I can see how you could quite get into it.

That really is not the case. Everywhere I have worked has been very open to lateral hires although it is more common to see CVs from candidates with experience at financial services firms.

The interview process can be a little intimidating at some firms and you will probably be expected to write some code and solve some algorithmic problems. My first role at a well known US bank involved a superday where I had eight back to back interviews and still had to return the next week to speak to the MD. The interview for my current role involved nothing more than an informal chat with the hiring manager.

Regarding long hours it depends who you work for. The first bank I worked for was notorious for having a long hours culture which I feel penalises those with families. I took the unhealthy view that my bonus was my overtime payment. Great when you get 50%. Not so great when you get 2% through no fault of your own. At present I get away with working 9-5 but may work extra hours as required.

As for macho culture - sure in certain parts of the bank but this has been very much cracked down upon and in my experience never existed in technology.

Background checks - they are basically looking for any previous incidents regarding dishonesty however they will perform credit checks and validate your claimed qualifications and previous employment. Company directorships (excluding any Ltd Co you may provide services through) will also be scrutinised. Nothing too bad and a lot less intrusive than for some government roles.

The quality of techies at banks is hugely variable. Some are absolutely amazing. Some are pony and don't last long. The rest, including many contractors are solid but unspectacular.

The work is quite often tedious and getting things done often takes priority over getting things done property. As a consequence many codebases are full of poorly structured code and years of tactical hacks which never get refactored.

[DrewG]

Just for once, read what was written and try to understand it. It shouldn't be beyond your competence.

A senior manager, technical or not, will have a team to do the work under his direction. That's why he's a senior manager. Giving him the task to deliver something the company needs doing is perfectly straightforward. If that's beneath him then he won't be a senior manager for very long.

I love your attitude that you are senior therefore above such things as actually doing productive work. If you want to talk seniority, I've been Head of IT, a lead architect for some very big integrators and delivered programmes up to £72m with teams so of up to 200 people, on rates up to £1500 a day. You come across as just a jumped up coder using a joke methodology with no business knowledge.

HTH. BIDI.

I assumed everyone on this board would have similar experience, are you telling me that your experience is so remarkable that it needs highlighting?

When someone needs to crawl around under the floorboards to lay some ethernet, I'll know who to call.

[eek]

I assumed everyone on this board would have similar experience, are you telling me that your experience is so remarkable that it needs highlighting?

When someone needs to crawl around under the floorboards to lay some ethernet, I'll know who to call.

No I think he's calling you out for being argumentative with every other poster and someone who adds no value to this site but using nicer terms....

[TheDude]

I assumed everyone on this board would have similar experience

Your assumptions have been pretty much dismissed in the past couple of posts whilst you were also being pwned and owned.

[malvolio]

I assumed everyone on this board would have similar experience, are you telling me that your experience is so remarkable that it needs highlighting?

When someone needs to crawl around under the floorboards to lay some ethernet, I'll know who to call.

Like I said in m last post - BIDI.

When in a hole, it is a good idea to stop digging.

[DrewG]

Like I said in m last post - BIDI.

When in a hole, it is a good idea to stop digging.

In a hole? Board full of out of work contractors that could only thrive in a bull market.

[sadkingbilly]

Board full of out of work contractors that could only thrive in a bull market.

so why are you here then?

[DrewG]

so why are you here then?

I'm here to sell my linkedin coaching course on how to be a successful contractor in a bear market, nobody (out of work or people who THINK they're highly paid) wants to listen to my advice.

[malvolio]

In a hole? Board full of out of work contractors that could only thrive in a bull market.

I retired, didn't need to work any more.

You, however, don't even recognise a metaphor when you see one.

[Paralytic]

Why are we discussing job titles in a contractor forum?

I'm discussing job roles, not job titles