got a job at the middle office of a bank. doing some operation and coding stuff, sort of trader assistant, but not sitting on the trading floor. can sb talk abt the future of the middle office role? the exit opportunity?
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its much more stable as a career in the long run, with less risk. you work less hours, you get paid less too. The middle office skills are also much much more transferable so you have much more exit opportunities. You can lateral into another company with the same role or its entirely possible to change tracks effortlessly. With all the extra hours you have past 5pm, you can stay fit, stay tan, and spend time enjoying your life.
speaking of the exit opp, name a few?
I worked in a MO role for an internship, so I can only speak to what I know from experience. Going into role, I thought it would be closer to FO than BO and I was right and wrong. I say this because it obviously depends on which group you are placed into. From what I remember, those who worked with the traders, did some valuation work for the bank, or something where interaction with people in the FO was constant did have a better shot to network and possibly land a FO in the future. BUT, you have to cognizant that this was for interns, whereas for FT, you are expected to be in role for quite some time. I would say the future of MO is that will it will continue to be a need for banks, in terms of having such operations in NYC, this is not really required so many of the BB are transitioning their operations to lower cost places (such as Baltimore and Delaware). This will make it tougher of course to network and make that jump to FO, amongst other concerns.
As for exit opps, a lot of people either work their way to more senior roles in the MO, go back to get MS or MBA after a few years and rebrand, or switch to different area of finance. I would say, from my experience, there were a few people I worked with that eventually ended up in FO roles (BB, MM, and consulting) (myself included) but we did that after intern roles concluded (The MO role being more of a foundation element for our careers). PM if you have other questions and hopefully some other people who work in MO now can speak to job and exits opps as well.
thanks man, what position do u have now and how did u get it after ur mo internship?
I currently work in an RE finance role and and going to MM IB within a month.
Here is my story (which explains path from MO role): http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/my-story-a-thank-you-card-to-patr…
PM if you have more questions...
the position i have right now sits in the mo of the bank. it helps trader assistants with some spreadsheet works. it doesnt involve with any activity with traders.. most of the time we deal with vba coding stuff. no c++/c#, no statistical stuff(software like R/Matlab) or even sql till now(i dont know i will be assigned to projects involving sql). due to this fact, i think it would be pretty hard to find another position in the firm in 3 years, coz vba seems to be the only thing this position requires( maybe a little more financial product knowledge)..
Your exit opp is...back/middle office at a different bank.
Moving to trading or IB is not going to be easy. And it's definitely not an exit opp for your job. It will take a lot of networking, a lot of luck, and probably even grad school if all else fails. The longer you stay there the worse it will be (unless you plan on going back to school). Also, what you described can be easily outsourced and you won't have a valuable skillet for trading.
***Middle Office Lifestyle Discussion (Originally Posted: 02/07/2013)
Hey All,
I would like to get a discussion going on the true value of Middle Office Careers specifically Finance (Treasury, Strategy,Product Control), and Risk Management at a BB. Some people prefer these types of roles and honestly, Its the best they can get (non-target). Just want to get some insight on the Pay progression, Career ops, and B-School prospects as they are usually discussed briefly and much of the data is dated.
I know analysts usually start at 65-70k, 10k sign-on, and 5-20% bonus
Can They achieve 250k all-in at the VP Level?
Top 15 B School?
Relatively Safe Job Security?
,
i did BB MO, accepted to a top 10 bschool
I'm at a nontarget state school and I landed a BB S&T offer for this summer, so I disagree with your statement that middle office is "the best they can get."
Thanks for the reply guys. What was the pay progression like including bonus during your time there? Also about how long did you stay until you determined that it was a good time to apply to B school? And lastly, where do you guys plan to end . After school?
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