c++ and london not bank

[BlasterBates]

The thing to bear in mind is that you need the knowledge, it is a bit like trying to be a taxi driver. Even if someone has 8 years exp. in banks, it might get them the interview but they can't answer the questions (and these questions are bl**dy difficult) they won't be considered.

So if you buy the right books, learn and understand it, then you'll do OK even if you don't have much banking exp., and the banks will accept the "I read a book" argument. However they will poke you in front of a trader, or an analyst to test you ability.

However without any experience at all, you need to get your foot in the door, so apply for jobs where banking experience is preferred, but your technical knowledge must be good; do BrainBench C++ and push for 75% plus, and make sure your multithreading knowledge is good. Also interfaces, so knowledge of Tibco, Corba and MQ-Series is useful.

Books...well John Hull - Options, Futures and Other Derivatives will give you sufficient knowledge.

[cpp]

Thank you for your answers, guys.

Get some business skills.

Is there a way to get any valuable financial skills not getting a job in finance first? Books, courses?...

[BlasterBates]

Read the adverts carefully, yes a lot of adverts require banking experience. This is necessary if you're working with traders or business people so you can understand them, however, if you have great technical experience there are pure technical roles jobs. Just read the adverts carefully, I think you'll find around ten percent of the finance jobs require no banking exp. though they often say its preferred. Don' t let that stop you applying vbecause they're after the technical skills, multithreading, tcp-ip etc etc.

[DimPrawn]

Can anyone advise anything?

Yes. Moving to C# from C++ is not going to kill you. Bone up on .NET, take a few C# courses and broaden your horizons a little. Get some business skills.

Or move to India where all the plain vanilla C++ coding jobs have gone.

[Not So Wise]

Can anyone advise anything?

Not really, it's a rather stupid and pointless trend that started about 3/4 years ago and is only getting worse. Now even got other sectors like retail doing it.

And of corse because they are being so narrow in their requirements a lot of placements are not getting filled (i assume as i keep seeing them reposted time and time again) they turn around and start crying "Skills crisis in the UK!!!"

[cpp]

I am looking for my second C++ contract in London now. I have 5 years of C++ experience from Europe and US. What I don't have is financial experience. Anyway let's see what there is on Jobserve for me...

(1)

C++ AND LONDON
50 Matching Jobs

(2)

C++ AND LONDON
NOT .NET
NOT JAVA
24 Matching Jobs

(3)

C++ AND LONDON
NOT .NET
NOT JAVA
NOT BANK*
NOT FINANCIAL
NOT "FRONT OFFICE"
NOT TRADING
NOT TREASURY
3 Matching Jobs

One job of the three is CE.NET. Not good. Another one is something embedded with Nucleus and VXWorks required. Not good. The last one is a regular Visual C++/COM/SQL job in a media company. Now I can apply!

Can anyone advise anything?