Ok, some of you may remember I posted a couple of weeks ago as I'd taken a 2.5 year holiday and wanted some advice getting back in the game.
Things are on the cards but taking ages to get moving.
A trader I worked with at my previous perm role between late 03 to early 07 would like me to come work for him on what looks to be a 6 month contract. He's asking what my rate is.
My relevant experience is as follows:
4 years Excel VBA developement.. pretty good.
2 years Matlab .. good but not expert
1 year plus little bits here and there of C++: average to bad (I've never developed a big project in it)
Basic HTML and enough VBscript and ASP (old not .NET) to put together an intranet site with server side scripting, it wasn't pretty but it did the job.
SQL as I needed it to get data in and out of financial databases: so fairly basic
plus of course it's 2 years since I did any of this.. so I'm not exactly tulip hot right now.
The role itself is hard to tell.. I think it'd be developing a web portal for him (the intranet site I made was one he used primarily.. he liked it, hence he wants to hire me again.. better the devil you know I guess) to deliver results of models developed by a quant. I think I'd be expected to code up the quants work too.
Have chatted to the quant and he likes to work almost exclusively in C++ and python, doubt they'd shell out for a Matlab (plus toolboxes) license.
Think they might be hiring other contractors too so I might not be working alone.. but I'm not sure on this.
My other job option is a perm role with a market making firm. It's primarily VBA development (although using C# and other tech as time goes on) and the salary is 35k, plus (according to the agent) a 75%+ bonus. (When I left my perm job I was on 42k plus bonus of between 10 to 25k) I've had 3 interviews and had the thumbs up from HR and my potential boss.. if his boss (who I also interviewed with) gives the thumbs up then the role is mine. Trouble is he is apparently really busy with workload / meetings etc. and is not getting back to the potential boss to either finalise the offer or call it off.
To be honest I want the perm role the most, at this point in my career I think it's going to offer me more.. the contracting role is going to be too unstructured I think (not sure they know exactly what they want) for me to add much of value to my CV.. plus I like the people I've met at the perm job more.. Of course it's not in the bag yet and may all fall through, so I'd like to get the best rate I can if I take the contract. Otherwise I have diddly squat (oh except a possible role at goldmans but I think I wasn't good enough in the interview).. being out of the game for what's getting towards 3 years now doesn't help you get to interviews so I really need to take anything to get me back into work.
I've not idea what I'm worth really.. I see VBA contracts advertised for around 500pd.. but of course that's for really experienced people not to mention my 2 (getting on for 3) year gap and the fact that the role probably won't involve much VBA. On the other hand they would be hiring me direct so wouldn't have to pay a cut to an agent so I should be able to get away with asking for a little more. I dunno, I was thinking of offering myself at 300pd or is that too much? Oh, and this is all central London of course
Things are on the cards but taking ages to get moving.
A trader I worked with at my previous perm role between late 03 to early 07 would like me to come work for him on what looks to be a 6 month contract. He's asking what my rate is.
My relevant experience is as follows:
4 years Excel VBA developement.. pretty good.
2 years Matlab .. good but not expert
1 year plus little bits here and there of C++: average to bad (I've never developed a big project in it)
Basic HTML and enough VBscript and ASP (old not .NET) to put together an intranet site with server side scripting, it wasn't pretty but it did the job.
SQL as I needed it to get data in and out of financial databases: so fairly basic
plus of course it's 2 years since I did any of this.. so I'm not exactly tulip hot right now.
The role itself is hard to tell.. I think it'd be developing a web portal for him (the intranet site I made was one he used primarily.. he liked it, hence he wants to hire me again.. better the devil you know I guess) to deliver results of models developed by a quant. I think I'd be expected to code up the quants work too.
Have chatted to the quant and he likes to work almost exclusively in C++ and python, doubt they'd shell out for a Matlab (plus toolboxes) license.
Think they might be hiring other contractors too so I might not be working alone.. but I'm not sure on this.
My other job option is a perm role with a market making firm. It's primarily VBA development (although using C# and other tech as time goes on) and the salary is 35k, plus (according to the agent) a 75%+ bonus. (When I left my perm job I was on 42k plus bonus of between 10 to 25k) I've had 3 interviews and had the thumbs up from HR and my potential boss.. if his boss (who I also interviewed with) gives the thumbs up then the role is mine. Trouble is he is apparently really busy with workload / meetings etc. and is not getting back to the potential boss to either finalise the offer or call it off.
To be honest I want the perm role the most, at this point in my career I think it's going to offer me more.. the contracting role is going to be too unstructured I think (not sure they know exactly what they want) for me to add much of value to my CV.. plus I like the people I've met at the perm job more.. Of course it's not in the bag yet and may all fall through, so I'd like to get the best rate I can if I take the contract. Otherwise I have diddly squat (oh except a possible role at goldmans but I think I wasn't good enough in the interview).. being out of the game for what's getting towards 3 years now doesn't help you get to interviews so I really need to take anything to get me back into work.
I've not idea what I'm worth really.. I see VBA contracts advertised for around 500pd.. but of course that's for really experienced people not to mention my 2 (getting on for 3) year gap and the fact that the role probably won't involve much VBA. On the other hand they would be hiring me direct so wouldn't have to pay a cut to an agent so I should be able to get away with asking for a little more. I dunno, I was thinking of offering myself at 300pd or is that too much? Oh, and this is all central London of course
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