I would be greatful if anybody doing this kind of job would tell me about their career prospects. That is, how do they estimate a chance to ever moving to the front office? How much interaction with the fund managers is actually happening and of what kind? How interesting is the job?
This job sucks. I do it. Do a search for ‘Back Office’ and you’ll see what many others think. That being said, jobs are lean these days so beggers can’t be choosers.
thanks for the response! about the job market - so true, so true one last question: does this experience count towards the CFA qualification?
99% of the time no.
99% of time is the best case…but agree, generally no you cant move to front office. Money can still be quite good given the low work load and low stress. I have seen 2 year people get back office jobs with Hedge funds paying $72K, $5K Sign on, and 10-15% bonus (who knows where that has landed now). Not bad for a job with low hours and stress.
I did this as my first job out of college for a very large firm. You might have a different experience if you’re at a small firm (a better one). But if you’re at a large one expect no exposure to Fund Managers, and no advancement except into managerial roles in Fund accounting. If you’re just starting out and don’t have any other options to enter the field…take it. The pay sucks and it wasn’t interesting to me but we all have to start somewhere- and like the previous poster said- beggers can’t be choosers, esp in this job market. No it won’t count towards CFA experience but the good thing is you’ll have plenty of down time to study for the exam. Take it and get the hell out after one year, MAX 1.5-2 years with CFA Level 1 under your belt. I got out after 6 mos. I know my post was negative but go in with an open mind…just don’t stay in the role too long or you will get pigeonholed and you’ll be stuck in the back office.
The problem with this job is that is doesn’t lead to very many good prospects…front office will usually look down upon it. Maybe you could get into something like risk mgmt. If you’re gonna do accounting, I would try to do something related to regular accounting…that way you’ll learn about financial stmts forward and back. That’s useful at least.