Transition from IT -> Finance

W

WallstYouth

I've been in IT for a little over 10 years with almost no (real) financial or trading experience, everything about financials I picked up on my own with my thinkorswim account, books, and this website, I’ve been doing this for about a year and I’ve been very successful for some odd reason luck? ☺

So here is my dilemma I’m really tired of the mundane IT work and I’m looking to hopefully transition into financials front office one day, The problem is I make a pretty decent salary with my IT skills about 140k a year base+comp, and I don’t really feel like starting from the bottom as an analyst, I’m currently employed with a FX trading company and I have to say I have learned absolutely nothing about the inner business side of FX that I couldn’t pick up myself so I started interviewing about a month back and got an offer from Bank of America (investment banking side) not commercial banking, and a hedge fund I want to keep anonymous at the moment, I got the offer from both companies through my IT background and skills, so my grand slam plan is to hopefully join one of these companies learn as much as I can about investing, go back for my MBA and hopefully transition to a mid level front office position in a year.

Anyone here who happened to transition from IT into a front office financial position care to give any insight, also where would someone like me be better off in the long run? A large Investment bank or a hedge fund?

Thanks in advance.
 
i would suggest that you go for an MBA as soon as you can to reposition yourself. you can use the on campus recruiting programs to make the transition. in my opinion that would be the best way.

i am not sure about your specific circumstance, but it sounds like the BofA and hedge fund offers you got are still IT/support type positions. if you take them your resume will show a track record of going from one IT/support position to another.

also, you said that you don't want to start at the analyst level. i'm assuming you are talking about the analyst positions that are filled by undergrads. well, if you are 10 years out of school, i think you will find that the doors to those analyst positions are closed to you anyway. you will not "fit" into those types of positions anymore. that's just the reality of how things work. of course if you know somebody very well then anything is possible.

there is someone on this board named rufus_4000. you may want to ask him for more advice. he seems to have worked on wall street for many years in various capacities including positions in IT/operations and hedge fund/trading.
 
Honestly it is difficult to make half of your current salary in financials given your background. It will be unrealistic to think that you won't have to work from the bottom in financials making 50K a yr (obviously depending on which part of the country you are in).

How you thought about using money you saved to invest/trade your own capital full time down the road?
 
Quote from WallstYouth:

I've been in IT for a little over 10 years with almost no (real) financial or trading experience, everything about financials I picked up on my own with my thinkorswim account, books, and this website, I’ve been doing this for about a year and I’ve been very successful for some odd reason luck? ☺

So here is my dilemma I’m really tired of the mundane IT work and I’m looking to hopefully transition into financials front office one day, The problem is I make a pretty decent salary with my IT skills about 140k a year base+comp, and I don’t really feel like starting from the bottom as an analyst, I’m currently employed with a FX trading company and I have to say I have learned absolutely nothing about the inner business side of FX that I couldn’t pick up myself so I started interviewing about a month back and got an offer from Bank of America (investment banking side) not commercial banking, and a hedge fund I want to keep anonymous at the moment, I got the offer from both companies through my IT background and skills, so my grand slam plan is to hopefully join one of these companies learn as much as I can about investing, go back for my MBA and hopefully transition to a mid level front office position in a year.

Anyone here who happened to transition from IT into a front office financial position care to give any insight, also where would someone like me be better off in the long run? A large Investment bank or a hedge fund?

Thanks in advance.
More...

I transitioned from programming to trading in my early 30s.

It depends on your psycholgy.
You seem to want to work for someone else...
While I have not had a job job in 16 years... and never will again.

What worked for me was that I was never, ever going to take another computer job...
Was basically unemployed for 2 years...
And then my trading took off and I am doing great.

Within a company...
You are extremely unlikely to be able to crossover from systems to trading.

With the kind of money you are making...
You should easily be able to capitalize a small trading firm...
Or join a small firm (like mine) with 2 valuable things to offer...
Software/computer expertise and capital.

rm+

:cool: :cool: :cool:
 
i am curious. what is so bad about a computer job? have have heard this complaint before. aren't you learning a lot? and don't a lot of traders wish they can program so they can develop their own strategies?

Quote from RedManPlus:

I transitioned from programming to trading in my early 30s.

It depends on your psycholgy.
You seem to want to work for someone else...
While I have not had a job job in 16 years... and never will again.

What worked for me was that I was never, ever going to take another computer job...
Was basically unemployed for 2 years...
And then my trading took off and I am doing great.

Within a company...
You are extremely unlikely to be able to crossover from systems to trading.

With the kind of money you are making...
You should easily be able to capitalize a small trading firm...
Or join a small firm (like mine) with 2 valuable things to offer...
Software/computer expertise and capital.

rm+

:cool: :cool: :cool:
More...
 
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