Does Back Office deserve more respect?

Morning all,

As a long time reader of wso, I've read my fair share of BO posts. Now that I've been working in the industry for a little while (AM), I'm starting to realize that a few BO departments certainly have talent.

While I agree with the popular that getting 'comfortable' in a BO role may do more harm than good, I strongly disagree that BO is a bad place to start a career out of your undergrad. Though some departments are more monotonous than others, their are some departments that provide a great stepping stone for undergrads from non-targets.

For example, a good friend of mine started his career in a 'clearing' role out of undergrad. He studied finance (maybe econ too?), so he had a significant advantage of some of his older co-workers. Rather than thinking his job was a dead end, he used his first year to study everything he could about the firm, and obviously, networked with various business groups. Today, he's a fixed income strategist providing insight to the firms private wealth advisors/analysts. Safe to say he's bringing home $120k-$150k (In the Midwest).

Hopefully this helps some of you prospective monkeys out there. Just remember, never get comfortable in a temporary role.

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Agree with the message here although I'm conflicted whether entering BO in the first place will really open future doors.

My first job out of UG was a BO role at a large mutual fund and I thought that if I do all the right things at the fund and network internally that I could land a position in a different group.. couldn't be further from the truth. Those high finance positions only recruited from target schools and the job itself offered no transferable skill set whatsoever so doing day-to-day activities felt demoralizing.

It did however give me the opportunity to study during the day for the CFA exams and the GMAT, which I eventually took advantage of before eventually landing into a high finance position.. so I guess the time and consistent income aspect part of the work definitely evens it out

 

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