Transitioning from IT to finance

Probably not the best place to get advice on career changes at your stage (see multiple trending threads on 'online crushes').

I would speak to a recruitment agent maybe about what roles they have on their books that match your skill set in the area of financial services and explain you are looking to make a career change and then go from there.

Ha! Yes indeed, although I was hoping there may be some people who would be able to comment from their experience of having worked in/ working in financial services, but I suppose many of them must have left by now.

I think that's probably quite a good idea re: the recruitment agent.

Thanks a lot for your reply

No problem! All I know from experience (I left school and went to work in the City) is that the sector needs those with substantial IT skills and experience but there are not enough people to fill the jobs.

Yeah I have a couple of friends who have told me this as well; my plan is to definitely learn automation testing, and a few other technical proficiencies, before I move to my next job as I think they would be invaluable skills to have.

May I ask what it is that you do in the City, and how you've found the work so far? Am I to conclude from your username that you haven't found it so great?

Yes, I may have said some unflattering things about some City environments in regards to my experience as a young woman. I will probably return after uni though, it's not all bad.

My route in was by being the junior on a desk. I started at a derivatives brokerage arm of a large IDB. It's a very traditional route in, nowadays those opportunities barely exist and the qualifications they ask for are a lot, plus they expect a lot more from you. Also, anyone starting out now has pretty much arrived at the end of the party. The champagnes gone, the whiskey has gone, the fine wine has all been drunk, the prosecco has run dry, and what's left is a flat bottle of Sprite at the bottom of the fridge. Technology is where the opportunity is to be had nowadays.

Hmmm ok that's interesting. Well lucky for me that I'm all about the Coke then

What are your thoughts on fintech bw? For my next move, and for the kind of background I have, I thought it might be a good option to explore?

Hi all.

Hope you're all well Sorry for the very long post that is to follow but I would really appreciate some career advice as I know that there are many knowledgable people on here.

So I've been working in IT in a manual testing role for just slightly over 3 years now. I have a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science and an MSc in Software Engineering.

I'm not quite sure though that I wish to stay in IT, or rather I should say, purely within IT, as even though there is some fascinating work being done in the field right now and technologies are evolving rapidly, I don't believe I'm a hardcore techie and can't see myself in this industry for the rest of my life.

I'm interested in exploring finance/ management consulting/ management as I feel the work could be interesting, and would potentially enable me to utilise my skills in IT while also learning about a completely new industry/ industries (I would ideally like to learn about as many industries as possible, and I guess consulting would probably be the choice that tends most towards this).

Many people I've spoken to have also told me that I should consider management roles as their perception of me is that I'm good with people and could thrive in such a position.

Something tells me I would probably enjoy a management role as well, as I do like working with people, am able to take a high level view of things, am well- organised, and good with working to deadlines. I probably need to improve my decision making skills though which I guess is the other essential competency in management.

So I just wanted to ask if there is one path that would be better for me to take over others in transitioning from IT to finance/ consulting/ management.

I have considered enrolling on the Graduate Diploma in Finance from the University of London to demonstrate my motivation for finance for future applications, and obviously to get a working knowledge of finance, but I don't know if it would be worth me doing this, and instead just buying a couple of good books and self- teaching instead? Which brings me to the question of whether someone could recommend some good introductory books on either finance or management?

I have also considered doing an MBA but almost all of the schools in the UK state that you need at least three years managerial experience to be able to apply for one; how exactly could I go about getting this experience? I've had the thought of maybe switching track and considered doing some sort of junior project management job in order to achieve this, but I don't know wise it is to start from scratch again; I'm 27 years old and hence don't have as much leverage with time as some of my younger contemporaries.

A positive is that at my current workplace they are looking to hire a junior tester soon and I will probably be responsible for at least indirectly managing them, and with the company growing all the time, there will quite likely be ample management opportunities for me in the future, but I don't know if I should wait so long (to actually achieve some significant management experience I would probably need to hang around at my company for another 2- 3 years)?

A big thanks to you for reading such a long post, and for your replies in advance

Have a great day!

Haha I forgot the soft drinks context when I first glanced at your reply and saw the word 'coke' and was like, actually, I no longer recommend this career move for you!

What area of fintech? Tech applied to which area? Trading? Operations? Data analytics? Customer service? Trading algos? Information?

For traditional i-banking/trading, your best bet at this stage is a top tier MBA or a Masters in Finance from a target university. It's up to you whether you want to give up your chance at progressing within your current role or whether to risk a move into finance..

Management isn't hugely important for MBA applications, what's mire key is your story, how you've progressed, your future goals and of course prior performance at university/outside of academia (i.e. sports, volunteering etc).

Posted from TSR Mobile

Hey, thanks a lot for your reply

Yes the decision to stay in my current role, or move into finance, is a difficult one, but one that I have been considering for some time now, although not one I will be making anytime soon/ before next year, but I've realised that there's nothing like planning early!

Also, do you know how important it is to have a 2:1 undergraduate degree for applying to a top MBA, not taking into account how well one does on the GMAT/ equivalent exams + experience+ extra- circulars?

Haha, although apparently the other 'coke' is all the rage in IB?

Pretty important, I'd imagine. Of course if you have an exceptional GMAT (750+) and solid experience, they could both outweigh the lack of a 2:1.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Err errrrr no idea what you're talking about!!!

You could develop software/ algos for trading? You could get into product strategy and help design the functionality of trading systems and user interfaces, tech sales, change management for a firms technology. I don't know what your job is really and it's not an area I have enough experience of to tell you what you should be doing.

Ok cool, and what exactly would you define as solid experience? Sorry for all the questions! Will rep tomorrow

Yup sure you don't

My job is essentially the black- box manual functional, and regression testing of web applications with a Linux back- end, so I guess I could always seek out QA roles at fintech firms and go from there, or be very ambitious and try out development!

Brand name companies, clear upward development, increase in responsibility etc

Posted from TSR Mobile

Ok, and how much weighting would be given to entrepreneurial ventures, i.e. attempting to launch an app (no crazy ambitions of launching the next Whatsapp here , just something that could be fairly profitable), or starting a company with friends, and let's just consider worst scenario, failing, but learning a lot in the process which could be discussed and add to my story?

I have no idea what that is, but it sounds marketable to me!

How are your development skills?

As I mentioned before, they are in high demand.

They're just fancy technical terms for saying that I test the functional features of web applications without knowing how they're implemented

They're ok, pretty rusty though, I haven't really done any major programming since my MSc, and that was all in Java. I will try to program with Java again in the future though.