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Tier 1 Bank Offer and Moving Internally

Joined
4/9/16
Messages
30
Points
18
I have a Statistics bachelors (target) and am on track to complete my Masters in Software Engineering this year (Oxbridge). Solid grades in both.

I have 5 years FAANG experience in Data / Analytics - mostly as a Data Engineer. My main programming language is Python and I know SQL/some Linux also as well as the AWS stack and Spark for cloud computing.

I received an offer for a Data Engineer role at a tier 1 investment bank. From what I understand the bank are moving to a world where the ‘technologists’ sit with the business. I will be leading their data engineering platform which is exciting and the compensation is good so there is no reason not to take the offer. My friend said this team and role falls into ‘Middle Office’ and it well regarded at the bank.

My hesitation is the domain is marketing analytics (which is the background I have at FAANG) so not ‘traditional finance’, so while this would help me return to FAANG, I am unsure how I can leverage the background to later move into other roles at this bank for a longer term lucrative but stable career here. I considered the QCF but am not sure this will be valuable here?

I’ve explored career paths and I see myself more as a Quant developer or Strat (Analytics/BI/Data Engineer equivalent in FAANG) - not IBD, not trading, etc but I am not sure how to obtain the financial experience I would need in order to move. I did explore HFs and so on but I am not sure the culture is for me and prefer to try to move internally first given I am still relatively ‘early’ in my career.

One alternative is to learn C++ or KDB or similar and then move into a FO dev role? Would appreciate some input on this as I want to set myself up well and leverage my time there as much as possible.
 
This has been mentioned here quite a bit but I'll say it again:

If YOU work in a firm and YOU perform well and YOU know how to network then anything is possible. Nobody is going to make this happen for you. I went from a job supporting Risk IT into a front office strat role at a top bank and I'm loving it.

That being said, middle office is really a myth. If you're not making money for the bank you won't be paid very well, but that should be OK. Earn your experience. Prove yourself.

And network.
 
Nice! Yeah, money isn’t priority for me at the moment.

Can you kindly expand on your journey or link me to the post where you explain your journey and tips?

On a similar note - I am interviewing for a Data Engineer position at a trading firm (think Jump trading or similar) and am wondering if going to a tier 1 BB is better or a trading firm? (not in terms of comp). I am wondering if the bank is ‘safer’ in a sense. As I am from FAANG maybe the trading firm is more ‘similar’ in terms of mindset/execution.
 
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