Reply to: .NET Finance/Banking vs General .NET

[Scrag Meister]

Contracting in Finance

It varies a huge amount between strategic v tactical work.

I much prefer the tactical as it fast and usually only mea dn possibly one other.

Bureaucracy (spelling? ) sets in once you get on the year long strategic project, the ones that those that sit in the gods are interested in, PMs, BAs, Team Leads, more programmers.

Better rates are also generally available.

Being perm in the bank is a full time, back stabbing, political manouevering game, I am thankful for being well out of that.

I'm enjoying it.

[Bright Spark]

Yes.

You go to talk to a Trader at his desk. Sometimes they send you away 'cos they're too busy. Sometimes they'll give you a few minutes. They'll explain what they want at a very high level. You flesh it out yourself or talk to other IT people to try and fill in the blanks. You build something. You demo it. They give feedback, you change it etc. You're expected to understand the business.

sometimes they just give you some weird complex spreadsheet that they been using since birth and you have to convert it to a functional .NET
app that can be used by other traders in the bank in two weeks.

[Not So Wise]

Yes.

You go to talk to a Trader at his desk. Sometimes they send you away 'cos they're too busy. Sometimes they'll give you a few minutes. They'll explain what they want at a very high level. You flesh it out yourself or talk to other IT people to try and fill in the blanks. You build something. You demo it. They give feedback, you change it etc. You're expected to understand the business.

Unless you are implimenting pretty major systems this format is common inside and out of banking, nothing special is required beyond decent communication skills, a bit of imagination and ability to google to find industry specific information when required

Cannot remember when i last saw a decent project spec that i did not write myself and only write those when i know client is going to be one those who end up always asking for more and more thus leading to a never ending project

[HairyArsedBloke]

Talks with the bond traders were extremely limited.

Yeah, they can be like that. Still, they are better than FX traders - they haven't developed language skills yet. They just point and grunt.

[Hex]

That's normally the case if you're building some Excel / VBA / Access / .NET based thing that the trader wants yesterday. I don't see that as being the case for the core infrastructure systems. Then you get the usual BAs etc involved and projects take 6 months to develop before they are eventually (a) put on hold indefinately, (b) forgotten about or (c) canned.

The case I was describing was C# based trader tools. I've also done Java infrastructure for bond trading. In that case it was 9 months, no BAs but it did have project Manager and two technical leads who knew the business. Project was canned after 9 months similar to your description. Talks with the bond traders were extremely limited.

[frankjj]

.... I don't see that as being the case for the core infrastructure systems. Then you get the usual BAs etc involved and projects take 6 months to develop before they are eventually (a) put on hold indefinately, (b) forgotten about or (c) canned.

hmmm, doesn't sound like too demanding? I guess as far BA are involved this isn't a really high pressure environment ... is easy for a dev to be ahead.

[ChimpMaster]

Yes.

You go to talk to a Trader at his desk. Sometimes they send you away 'cos they're too busy. Sometimes they'll give you a few minutes. They'll explain what they want at a very high level. You flesh it out yourself or talk to other IT people to try and fill in the blanks. You build something. You demo it. They give feedback, you change it etc. You're expected to understand the business.

That's normally the case if you're building some Excel / VBA / Access / .NET based thing that the trader wants yesterday. I don't see that as being the case for the core infrastructure systems. Then you get the usual BAs etc involved and projects take 6 months to develop before they are eventually (a) put on hold indefinately, (b) forgotten about or (c) canned.

[weemster]

The City = money talks + tulip walks

[Hex]

so how does that industry sector define their systems at all? A trader giving you a cock n bull verbal description whilst buying and selling with a phone in his hand?

Yes.

You go to talk to a Trader at his desk. Sometimes they send you away 'cos they're too busy. Sometimes they'll give you a few minutes. They'll explain what they want at a very high level. You flesh it out yourself or talk to other IT people to try and fill in the blanks. You build something. You demo it. They give feedback, you change it etc. You're expected to understand the business.

[hgllgh]

Who's "they"? You're not going to get a Trader sitting down and writing a "proper spec".

so how does that industry sector define their systems at all? A trader giving you a cock n bull verbal description whilst buying and selling with a phone in his hand?

[HairyArsedBloke]

Who's "they"? You're not going to get a Trader sitting down and writing a "proper spec".

[Hex]

yeah i don't get it either.
what they should be doing is producing proper specs that a developer can then work from ... regardless of industry experience. i guess they just can't be arsed...

Who's "they"? You're not going to get a Trader sitting down and writing a "proper spec".

[hgllgh]

yeah i don't get it either.
what they should be doing is producing proper specs that a developer can then work from ... regardless of industry experience. i guess they just can't be arsed...

[Le Rosbif]

Pocketing 600+ per day while making the manager believe that you care about the project but actually don't give a monkey about it.
Spend a lot of time learning and trying to impose new technologies, WPF, MVVM, Prism, TDD, IoC, mocking, etc... and having fun in the process.
Bulltulip your way from meeting to meeting, coming in at 9, leaving at 5.30 and pubing at least once a week with fellow contractors.

Anybody contracting in finance and not experiencing this is indeed a muppet and should turn permie.
Anybody telling you it's tough and mindless is jealous.

... The same way a permie will always tell you that he's better of perm than contractor.

And now... I'm going to get a lot of bashing...

[frankjj]

Long hours, Ability to cope with mentally ill people, strong business and
product knowledge especially area your working in ie cds, equities derivatives
this is most important bit, also ability to commute to london, deliver solutions quickly, knowlege of other systems used in banks ie Fidessa, Bloomberg API, reuters and lastly track record of working in banks.

I have most of them (derivatives at phd level) and long hours is the best thing of this job, delivering solution to critical production issues.

But still couldn't get an interview with a bank.