Breaking into Banking.. Any tips?

[eek]

Their code is stinking right across board. 10 to 30 year old systems that probably were alright in the first 6 months of their life that have been hacked about by a succession of useless contractors.

That's true everywhere tho. Its worse if its been hacked by permies tho.

[swamp]

That's true everywhere tho. Its worse if its been hacked by permies tho.

And it's even worse if it's been worked on by bob.

[minestrone]

I got asked to find out how a price was calculated. I had to debug a 4000 line stored proc which called 2 other 4000 line stored procs. Took me 2 days of going through each line manually and storing off each insert into the hundreds of temp tables, building the overall calculation up. Was their a problem? No, someone was just interested to know how we calculated the price. That is the level of pish work you can expect in banking.

I always found my level of mathematics to be far higher than the many rugger buggers with a crap economics degree who were expected to know what was going on.

[swamp]

There are decent rates outside of banking.

[fckvwls]

There are decent rates outside of banking.

WHS.

[Ruprect]

Worked for a couple of IBs, a few retail banks and a couple of insurance mobs.

The level of tosser is at the highest at the former and moves down to the latter.

The pay is at the highest at the former and moves down to the latter.

Their code is stinking right across board. 10 to 30 year old systems that probably were alright in the first 6 months of their life that have been hacked about by a succession of useless contractors plus one.

FTFY

[minestrone]

FTFY

Sometimes, yes I will take that.

tulip code just snowballs into really tulip code and to be honest I often banged in many crap changes in banks. You don't get given the opportunity to improve when you get estimates held to you from the estimator who has a ten hour course in Java and thinks he is Dijkstra.

[aussielong]

Sometimes, yes I will take that.

tulip code just snowballs into really tulip code and to be honest I often banged in many crap changes in banks. You don't get given the opportunity to improve when you get estimates held to you from the estimator who has a ten hour course in Java and thinks he is Dijkstra.

I've done some shonky stuff when i've been under pressure to get it out. It always comes back to bite you. It's goddam stressful when they can't trade, or cant settle because of your crap code. Fixing it under that sort of pressure seperates the men from the boys. Not a nice environment, far removed from engineering shops.

[Lockhouse]

I've done some shonky stuff when i've been under pressure to get it out. It always comes back to bite you. It's goddam stressful when they can't trade, or cant settle because of your crap code. Fixing it under that sort of pressure separates the men from the boys. Not a nice environment, far removed from engineering shops.

Pretty much sums it up. I've been in investment banking for nearly 20 years. I currently work on the Quant Desk at a major bank as a Jack-of-all-trades.

I would say the following are important to remember for long term survival:

1 - cover your @rse.
2 - make sure it's covered.
3 - IT don't pay for you - the business do.

You also need to be a psychologist. There are a lot of needy people in an IB. If you get the money it's worth it, if not...

[ChimpMaster]

Pretty much sums it up. I've been in investment banking for nearly 20 years. I currently work on the Quant Desk at a major bank as a Jack-of-all-trades.
<snip>

Are front office rates much different from middle office rates? In MO I see rates in the region of £500 - £750 a day. The average is probably £550, but seeing as no one discusses rates that's just my guess.