Help needed on career switch: VP in IT, or AVP in quant
Hello
I am struggling big time to make a decision on career move. I need help and other people's valuable opinions fairly urgently and I will appreciate it a lot if I can hear other people's honest opinions
Here is the context:
I am working in a front office IT team in a leading IB as an AVP(Assistent Vice President) and I have been lined up for promotion to VP at my current firm later this year.
Recently I have been offered role from two rival banks: the first is a VP role in an IT team which is very front office based; the second is an AVP(or Associate in their own bank) in a quant team. I want to go for one of these two offers but I am really struggling which one to go for.
The VP IT role will probably pay about 15 - 20k british pounds more than the AVP quant developer role. It's not easy to predit which role will come with a bigger bonus at year end.
My ultimate career goal is to move into trading or structuring one day. I suspect the concesus is that it's easier to move into trading from the quant team than from an FO IT team and in fact I have been looking for a quantitative development role for a long time (and I've finally found one). However, since this VP IT role is very front office based and the person in this role will have frequent interraction with the desks, I expect that the VP IT role can provide a chance for the transition into trading to happen as well.
Considering that 1) my ultimate career goal of becoming a trader; 2) The difference between base salary from these two roles; 3) The possibility and relative easiness of moving to trading from either the quant team or from a FO IT role; 4) If I fail to make trading, the career prospect provided by these two roles going forward, one from VP IT, one from AVP quant dev, can anybody give some opionions as to which role I should go for?
What would you be doing on the quant team?
In my opinion, you're initial thinking was correct. It will be much easier to transition from, and spin quant trading experience rather then an IT position. And as front-office facing as the IT position may be, it is still a long shot - especially if you are at the vp level.
I would also expect an avp/associate bonus in quant to be higher then vp in IT - but i have no real data points. Also, a quant trader is still a trader - so if that's your ultimate goal, I dont know why you're even thinking twice.
I know that it is hard to turn down the extra 20k, and that is probably what is clouding your judgement a bit - but I still thiink you should go quant.
Define "quant developer". That just sounds like you'll be IT support for the actual quants.
EDIT
Not trying to be a d*ck by the way, just asking because I don't know. If you're just going to be a code monkey supporting platforms that the actual quants use for their analytics, then stay with your current IT role and go for the VP bump. So please list some of the quant developer responsibilities...
Flake, a quant developer is not at all a code monkey for quant platform but neither one of those glamarous quant analyst or quant trader. A good percentage of people in quant groups are quant developers as the 'quants' are not only about writing analytics library. They are also responsible for maintaining the quant library, writing code implementing existing analytic ideas (rather than doing research), looking after traders on a daily basis as traders will always have questions about products, pricing tools and/or pnl explains etc. So a quant developer does have a great deal of exposure to the traded products and most quant developers sit on the floor in order to have frequent interractions with the traders. I think these are the main things that give quant analysts/quant developers an upper hand when it comes to moving into trading.
However, there are a small percentage of quant developers who won't be very good at products or have a great deal of exposure, depending on their exact work duties,
If I were in your position, I'd take the VP position and then leverage that against a top 5 MBA. I know this isn't directly relevant to your goals, but I've seen the IT VP -> top5 MBA -> IBD / TRADING path taken before. As for breaking into structured trading....I have no idea
Congrats on the offers. I don't see why you would change firms to do the same job, especially if the promotion is coming. (Promotion at current job is a better career indicator than switching jobs to get a new title.) So, either stay or take the quant job.
An MBA, even a top one, won't help you get into trading (especially net of the time that would take). Both the quant role and an MBA would help getting into structuring.
Thanks dabanobo. The unfortunate fact is that, my firm's HR won't give me a big salary jump for promotion to VP :(. I have to go elsewhere in order to get a decent VP pay.
I agree that an MBA won't get you into trading straight away. It will help a bit for sure but whether it's worth the time/money is a topic many people have discussed here.
I think in my situation, the reality is that neither of these two jobs will DEFINITELY guarantee me a trader job in the future, so I need to think about my career path in either of these roles going forward, should my quest for trading fails. However, I can't decide which role (one VP, one AVP; one IT, one Quant Dev) will provide me a better path in itself.
Your current firm may match the other firm's VP offer.
While there's no definite path to becoming a trader, an MBA is not at all helpful. The quant dev position is at least a step in the right direction. The others are not.
Help on career switch: VP in IT or AVP in quant?? (Originally Posted: 07/23/2011)
Hello
I am struggling big time to make a decision on career move. I need help and other people's valuable opinions fairly urgently and I will appreciate it a lot if I can hear other people's honest opinions
Here is the context:
I am working in a front office IT team in a leading IB as an AVP(Assistent Vice President) and I have been lined up for promotion to VP at my current firm later this year.
Recently I have been offered role from two rival banks: the first is a VP role in an IT team which is very front office based; the second is an AVP(or Associate in their own bank) in a quant team. I want to go for one of these two offers but I am really struggling which one to go for.
The VP IT role will probably pay about 15 - 20k british pounds more than the AVP quant developer role. It's not easy to predit which role will come with a bigger bonus at year end.
My ultimate career goal is to move into trading or structuring one day. I suspect the concesus is that it's easier to move into trading from the quant team than from an FO IT team and in fact I have been looking for a quantitative development role for a long time (and I've finally found one). However, since this VP IT role is very front office based and the person in this role will have frequent interraction with the desks, I expect that the VP IT role can provide a chance for the transition into trading to happen as well.
Considering that 1) my ultimate career goal of becoming a trader; 2) The difference between base salary from these two roles; 3) The possibility and relative easiness of moving to trading from either the quant team or from a FO IT role; 4) If I fail to make trading, the career prospect provided by these two roles going forward, one from VP IT, one from AVP quant dev, can anybody give some opionions as to which role I should go for?
Why the fuck are you posting this again?
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/help-needed-on-career-switch-vp-i…
Why the fuck can I not post it again, you fucking wanker?? Why the fuck do you have to use your fucking languages all the time like a dick?? God damn it I was looking for help not a fight! [quote=Flake]Why the fuck are you posting this again?
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/help-needed-on-career-switch-vp-i…]
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