Do you need to be able to code to work in Banking Technology at an investment bank?

Hi,

firstly can anyone answer the question in the forum title, I know non coding rolls exist in the technology division but i wish to know from people wo have done internships/grad schemes how common they are, I am interested in Banking technology and have managed to secure a first year 8 or 9 week internship at Santander's technology and operations division (ISBAN) this summer, I will be working in 'Isban Business consultancy' team.

Also can anyone tell me how likely I am to land a second year technology summer year internship at a bulge bracket given:

Internship at Santander London office (Isban) (not completed , this summer start)
Studying Engineering Mathematics (Bristol) and achieved a 1st in first year (71%)
A level: A*A*A*a (Maths, F.Maths, Physics, Chemistry As)
Good EC's but nothing incredible, includes sports, DofE etc..
Can't code (I have used code and am good at logic, but wouldn't say i can code atall, but am willing to learn on the job if this is available?)

TIA

Reply 1

luckyLimba

Yes some roles involve no coding (beyond faffing around with excel spreadsheets) but these roles often involve very long hours and a lot of politics if you want to manoeuvre your way up the ladder. Most desirable jobs in finance are competitive, the more lucrative (and desirable in other ways e.g. interesting, good work life balance etc.) the job the more competitive it will be (no surprise). There will be plenty of applicants with top degrees (1st class degrees and PhDs from Oxbridge, MIT, Imperial, Russel group etc) who are very smart, have learned a bit of finance and can also code. Most of the very top applicants will apply for roles as quant traders, or quant developers etc but obviously those that aren't successful there will filter down into technical roles in other areas. They won't necessarily be brilliant coders but they will all at the very least know the basics.

In a consultancy internship as an undergrad they won't be expecting much, as long as you're basically competent and make a good impression you'll be fine however in the longer term I don't really see why you wouldn't just learn a little bit of coding. Pick a language (java, C++, python) doesn't really matter which do a basic tutorial then just go through some project Euler questions online. If you enjoy it move onto a larger project. You don't need to be writing huge pieces of software independently but you should be able to understand and tinker with existing code; it doesn't take too much time to learn to to do this.

Reply 2

CR15169

Very helpful thank you, if you enter a grad scheme, do you learn to code on the job or is it generally a prerequisite

Reply 3

Hiteshmistry86

There are plenty of roles in technology in banking which do not require you to learn how to code - for example business analysis, project management etc

It's good to have an awareness of technology.

What are you interested in?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Articles for you

The Student Room community guidelines

What is an LLM and how could it benefit your career?

Powerful questions business students forget to ask their career advisers

Why I chose a law degree and what studying law was like