Reply to: Busted and boomed within the same week.

[nomadd]

Does Insurance count as banking experience? Not selling it!

Not really. I did a bit of work for a commercial insurance company about 5 years ago, but it didn't get me a break into investment banking (etc.) like I thought it would. Mind you, it would probably help you on the retail banking side of things, which is a better stepping-stone towards investment banking. That's the convoluted route I ended up going, over a period of 2-3 years.

As ever, there are no guarantees, but at least having insurance on your cv isn't going to harm it.

[stek]

Does Insurance count as banking experience? Not selling it!

[norrahe]

People are actually starting to get back to me about jobswerve applications now

And I have had a few pre-emptive calls from regular pimps too.

[cojak]

Yep - new financial year an' all that...

[stacks]

last month I landed a 3 month contract after 9 months out, it was on less money and a long way from home but bills to pay and all that!

This week things seem to have picked up hugely and had 3 calls today about contracts and got a phone interview tomorrow for one 10 mins away from where I live and more money.

I dont know if it's because budgets have been approved now it's April but for me at least things are starting to move!

[nomadd]

I had a similar bumpy week last week.
Got a contract, but then they decided that it breached an outsourcing policy they had, so it was canned.

Ouch. Still, chin up, this year seems a lot better than last year. And this time of year is always the best time of year to be looking. Hope something new comes your way soon.

[DaveBur]

I had a similar bumpy week last week.
Got a contract, but then they decided that it breached an outsourcing policy they had, so it was canned.

[Fred Bloggs]

You could also work out the lowest rate you could take in London without it being pointless, which could be a fair whack below what they are expecting to pay... the agent might love to place you and take £100/day, and if you are serious about breaking in it's a strategic move because next contract you do have current experience.

Doing a bit of a "loss leader" rate for the first gig could be good advice and could pay big dividends longer term.

[d000hg]

You could also work out the lowest rate you could take in London without it being pointless, which could be a fair whack below what they are expecting to pay... the agent might love to place you and take £100/day, and if you are serious about breaking in it's a strategic move because next contract you do have current experience.

[nomadd]

Do you think they are they willing to look at people without banking exprience.

I have not bothered applying to any IB simply because I do not have banking experience.

As other's have said: just go for it. You've nothing to lose.

I had to apply for 350+ roles last year before I landed an IB role, so it's clearly not easy. But the market is a lot better this year, so maybe something will land for you a lot sooner. Just go for it and see what happens.

[northernladuk]

Do you think they are they willing to look at people without banking exprience.

I have not bothered applying to any IB simply because I do not have banking experience.

Keep applying!! None of us had banking experience and one point and we now have so must work at some point. They prefer banking experience but it isn't as closed shop as SC. They will fit the right person in to the right job regardless of previous experience to a certain extent.

Keep plugging at it IMHO...

[d000hg]

Well I keep getting contacted and while I have some banking experience, it's not very obvious on my CV because it's not something I'm actively looking for, and I did it as my last permie job.
I think it depends on the skillset you have... if it's generic they can be picky, if it's specialist they are more likely to look outside the pool of people already working in that specific domain... as a developer domain knowledge is useful but we all know it's the same tech at the end of the day.

Why don't you apply and see? Phone about some positions and bluntly ask "are they interested in people with no banking experience"?

[memyselfandi]

Do you think they are they willing to look at people without banking exprience.

I have not bothered applying to any IB simply because I do not have banking experience.

[d000hg]

Interesting. The ones I've seen are Flex/Java, with emphasis on Flex.

[nomadd]

Mind sharing what you do, which bank, etc (by PM if you prefer)? I've been contacted about a couple of roles relating to IB this week.

Can't give out specific bank details, as I'm sure you can imagine. All I will say is that a hell of a lot of them seem to be recruiting hard at the moment. We've just had two permies leave my current gig in the last week, due to much better offers from competing banks; I've got a week left to go before I leave and start my new contract gig elsewhere.

My roles are around the Java Architecture/Design/Coding side of things, predominantly server-side (J2EE, but also non-J2EE multi-threaded stuff, low latency, grid/caching, etc.) Tools are the standard Java bits: Spring, Hibernate, SVN, Coherence, etc., etc. Systems are mainly "front office": FX, Fixed Income, eTrading, etc.

Cheers.