Is Back Office Paradise
Recently completed an internship at JP Morgan operations and everyone there seemed super happy with their jobs and loved what they do. Is it worth choosing back office over front office for the wellbeing and environment? Also does anyone know exactly how much worse paid BO is compared to FO?
Depends what you're chasing, if you're looking for a stable 9-5 with unstructured promotion ladders having a great environment and culture amongst seniors go for it. But remember an MD in Ops/Compliance will be making £100-175k whilst a 2nd year IBD Ass will be around that arena.
You can move to back office, after doing a few years IBD ( if you want to have a career in banking) and have a steady retirement with great benefits.
Personally I don't think IBD is worth the comp/prestige when you have other options such as CB where you can make almost the same base as IBD with lower hours and better culture, and could move into PB after a few years, after all in CB you helped CEO's with their RCF's or was the lead arranger in a syndicated loan.
Just my few cents
an american investment banker visits a greek fisherman
The banker saw several large tuna fish in his boat and complimented the Greek on the quality of his fish and asked, "How long does it take to catch them?" The Greek replied: "Only a little while."
The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Greek said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Greek fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play cards with my friends, I have a full and busy life."
The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats.
Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution.
You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Athens, then London and eventually New York where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The Greek fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?" To which the American replied, "15-25 years."
"But what then?" The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions ... Then what?" The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play cards with your friends."
So don’t do investment banking and go work a 9-5. Not that hard to do
main political take: capitalism works because of greed
The stuff you read here is purely because it's a FO-focused forum with prestige-driven folks.
Any back office job you're well off. Many ex-bankers have moved to back office functions when prioritising WLB (ignore my title).
To answer your last question BO roles pay significantly less. For example, I just looked up a market risk executive director posting with Santander NYC that pays 150 - 235k and requires 12 years of experience. An analyst 1 at a BB could optimistically hope to clear 200k year 1. This gap just gets wider the further along into your career.
That being said BO will often offer much better WLB and culture as you mentioned. Also, you’ll still be solidly middle / upper middle class (235k in your mid 30s is nothing to scoff at).
The way I see it, the real problem with BO isn’t the money but the stigma; and I don’t just mean on this forum. I know of several investment firms where the BO folks are in the same building but on much lower floors than the investment team. Think about that, the decisions makers at these firms literally see BO as beneath the investment team. At banks it’s even worse. BO folks are often in a completely different office or city. I went from big4 to IBD and can speak from experience, bankers specifically look down on CPAs. I personally believe that that’s pretentious and idiotic but that is the culture. Overtime working at a bank knowing that some of your colleagues and even senior leadership don’t respect your contributions can become demoralizing.
One caveat is that I don’t believe this applies to F500 companies which typically value their finance / operations functions and see them as key to the success of the business. Problem is operations at a bank will probably pay more than at a F500
TLDR - Finance industry looks down on BO but pays more than F500 where you’ll be respected
Honestly, if you like your job and the people you do it with, that's a lot of what life is about...
Back office can be pretty chill. You can make up to 170k a year, not bad for jersey city
May as well be a professor at that point if you managed to work in front office finance for a bit
Some people are front office types, some aren’t, and that’s fine
Back office is where all the chads work, front office is for betas anyways
Yup, confirming
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