I just finished up the interview process with a BB on wall street, and have been verbally offered the job, but for the wrong position, a tech position…I was told that this position will give me a lot of exposure to “business”, specifically, they mentioned trading and sales (but not research), and said that this will allow me the opportunity to assimilate myself with the business, build some network, and perhaps switch to business later on… but my question is, does a tech position at a BB on wall street help me to transfer into the business side? I want to be in IBD, and perhaps move to other roles later on after some time there. I wrote L1 this past dec, waiting anxiously for the results and if everything goes well, I’ll write L2 in June. My plan right now is to complete the CFA exams, and also pursue an MBA, and hopefully land an internship while doing my MBA, or land an associate role after I finish my MBA. As you know, preparing for CFA and MBA takes a considerable amount of time, and at my current position, I can afford to spend this time because it is not too demanding and the work isn’t that hard. But having worked in silicon valley before, I know how demanding it can get with the big tech firms there, and my friends at MS told me their job is very demanding too (tech positions also), I’m afraid taking this tech role would take away my time to prepare for these exams. The only positive I see from this position is the opportunity to assimilate with the business and network, tech is tech, I might be able to build a good reputation for myself if I do well, but I don’t see how the work itself can give me any additional leverage. Weighing this against the downside of potentially losing the time to complete the CFA exams and not having time to do MBA, it might be a better decision to leave the offer? Should I stay the course and keep working at those CFA exams and MBA or take this offer and risk not having enough time to do any of that? also, I can’t really see why they would hire someone after a rigorous interview process, but allow them the opportunity to leave them and move into business…I’m thinking it would be more a case of leaving this position and using this exp to hook up with a role in business, which means either way this position isn’t really helping much… money is not really an issue, they mentioned the base would only be 10% higher than what I’m currently getting, but there’s a “potential” for big bonuses, but then say don’t expect too much for the first year…either case, it’s not gonna measure up to a finance role at the BB. fellow AFers, any insight will be much appreciated.
So wait, you interviewed for one position and they offered you something else, unrelated? But the simple answer is that tech doesn’t lend itself to making the transfer into a front office role.
Depends. What department is this? Is your direct boss in sales and trading or in tech? There are some tech positions on trading desks running algos, macros, programs, etc. But I doubt a BB would be running as a quant firm.
no no, I was interviewed and offered the same job, the tech pos well, I was told I still report to a tech manager (thats what I remember anyway…this is just a verbal offer, I didn’t see anything on paper yet nor have I been contacted by HR yet, so, they can still withdraw the offer I suppose…), but I work closely with the trader/sales, and I support a lot of their work. From the impression they gave me, it’s not macro or anything like that, the business will need a problem solved, perhaps something along the lines of find a particular pattern among this pool of data, which involves digging through a huge database to sort the data and do some analysis on it and present it in a way that’s meaningful to them and give them the answer they’re after. And they asked me a ton of sorting algos, analytical problems, riddles, the typical questions they would ask when they’re looking for someone who’s analytical and can solve algorithms, rather than someone to implement a solved problem, or carry out the solution.
Your end goal is to work in IBD? This role won’t help you there at all. And the CFA designation likely won’t either. Your best bet is the MBA. The question becomes… Which job would you rather have between now and entry into an MBA program (however far away that might be)? If you’re looking to go to business school within a year, it’s probably not worth taking a new job anyway. If you think the new job/employer would boost your business school application (and you have more than a year to go), then the new job might make sense.
ya, I almost forgot that, thanks for the good points cfa2grunt! well, my end goal is not necessarily IBD, but that’s what I would want to do if I work at BB. Equity research at a buy-side would be good too…basically I meant to say I want to be in finance rather than tech…