Change of career from IT to finance

B.A. in Finance from Penn State (or some other equivalent place) < B.A. in Finance from Wharton (or some other equivalent place).

The fact that you think your degree in finance should matter in any time in the finance industry (other than landing an analyst position) suggests that you belong in the former.

Quote from syswizard:

So I have a degree in Finance and you know what: THATS WORTHLESS TOO right now in this job market where banks are laying off like there's no tomorrow.
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Interesting comments. No, I have an MBA, on top of a ton of IT experience...still barely able to get 6 figures.
Wife's friend works at Merrill Lynch for 5 years...in IT, now wants out and is thinking about nursing school (aren't we all).
Nursing is the new prima donna profession.
Ironically, it used to be IT !!
 
It pays real well if you become the equivalent of the Internet plumber. The guy who works on the switching and routing equipment, the other shit like the f5 switches and firewalls and storage area network stuff.

That stuff is complex as shit and is not taught in college either. And pays six figure. But it requires someone who has strong problem solving skills and is capable of learning new shit all the time.

Shit college does not teach either.
 
Quote from syswizard:

Interesting comments. No, I have an MBA, on top of a ton of IT experience...still barely able to get 6 figures.
Wife's friend works at Merrill Lynch for 5 years...in IT, now wants out and is thinking about nursing school (aren't we all).
Nursing is the new prima donna profession.
Ironically, it used to be IT !!
More...

What kind of it experience? Is it the hard shit or the manager shit like drawing charts and attending meetings.
 
.... interesting... if your wife worked in old ML, then she/you should realize that IT at a bank != finance job. Sure, you are paid better (for the most part) than IT elsewhere (except perhaps the west coast), but it's not the kind of 6-figure finance job that's usually referred to as such.

The fact that it's nearly impossible to move from IT to front-office (except maybe desk IT positions) finance should be a clue...

Quote from syswizard:

Interesting comments. No, I have an MBA, on top of a ton of IT experience...still barely able to get 6 figures.
Wife's friend works at Merrill Lynch for 5 years...in IT, now wants out and is thinking about nursing school (aren't we all).
Nursing is the new prima donna profession.
Ironically, it used to be IT !!
More...
 
Quote from DontMissTheBus:


The fact that it's nearly impossible to move from IT to front-office (except maybe desk IT positions) finance should be a clue...
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Yeah. It's insanely competitive to move from IT to Front Office. All the IT guys see the stat arb guys and think (probably true) "I can do that and get paid 10x more." And they all try to get those seats. In my experience it generally happens to the guy whose in the right place at the right time. A seat opens up, he has a good relationship with the front office desk there and is already intimately involved in that desk's business.
 
Indeed.... and from what I've seen, IT guys do not usually make a good transition into those front office roles even if given the chance: too much time spent working on (import) details but not enough intuition/knowledge about finance.

The worst, though, are dealing with IT-esque people at vendors for compliance/trade management systems.... zero (actually negative) domain knowledge (ie, what do you mean you can trade in units other than price??)

Quote from newwurldmn:

Yeah. It's insanely competitive to move from IT to Front Office. All the IT guys see the stat arb guys and think (probably true) "I can do that and get paid 10x more." And they all try to get those seats. In my experience it generally happens to the guy whose in the right place at the right time. A seat opens up, he has a good relationship with the front office desk there and is already intimately involved in that desk's business.
More...
 
I've known a number of IT guys who have made the transition to business. But then again some of them were Goldman guys and others were just too smart, they would have succeeded at whatever they did.

The crappy thing about IT on Wall Street is that they don't get the big bucks. Need to contribute to the bottom line in order to get the moolah or climb the ladder to CTO.

Quote from DontMissTheBus:

Indeed.... and from what I've seen, IT guys do not usually make a good transition into those front office roles even if given the chance: too much time spent working on (import) details but not enough intuition/knowledge about finance.

The worst, though, are dealing with IT-esque people at vendors for compliance/trade management systems.... zero (actually negative) domain knowledge (ie, what do you mean you can trade in units other than price??)
More...
 
I know a few GS guys who moved from sleeping in the server rooms to the gsam desks - it happens - but chances are, they are doing front office IT rather than doing flow or prop.

I'm sure there are exceptions. But my main thrust is that it's rather rare.

Well, as much as IT sucks, it's at least not back office - where they keep the dream of moving up the chain a live- but really, it's slim and the pay is awful.

Quote from lwlee:

I've known a number of IT guys who have made the transition to business. But then again some of them were Goldman guys and others were just too smart, they would have succeeded at whatever they did.

The crappy thing about IT on Wall Street is that they don't get the big bucks. Need to contribute to the bottom line in order to get the moolah or climb the ladder to CTO.
More...
 
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