Two Offers: Which one should I take? Finance vs. Tech environment
Currently graduating with an M.S. in Operations Research, very interested in the data science/analytics field.
I have offers from two places. One is a very big, well known tech firm doing pretty much analytics and data science for the cloud division. Work is 40-60 hours, very lax. 105 base, typical signing and RSUs (don't care for it much, not expecting stock to tremendously surge) with a total comp of ~140, and no expectation of getting large bonuses.
I have another offer at a hedge fund doing analytics as well, but not on the quantitative portfolio management side (more like, finding out if the investment is good rather than generating ideas). All in is about 90-100k starting, but in an extremely high COL area. Work is most likely 60-80 hours.
I plan to get a CFA either way, but if I go the tech route I most likely would want an MBA simply because I would like to move up the corporate ladder.
With that in mind, which option should I take? I would like to maximize earnings in the long term. In tech, the salary caps pretty early. While the work is minimal, I feel like a lot of people are not motivated to work hard and the compensation structure I think doesn't reflect good work. I'm more motivated to be rewarded on performing better than others.
While life in finance is a lot tougher, I actually respect the politics that go on there (simply because compensation grows much more later on). If I choose option 2, then I may have a stronger chance at recruiting for other finance firms simply because I know how the investment processes work. I might however not be aware of the downsides as I have not worked in financial services before. I know I have to work hard as an analyst before getting some respect, but I don't know if I might get burned out. Then again, in tech my ideas and opinions will have more weight starting off.
Is 60-80 hours THAT MUCH more taxing than your simple corporate life? I would like some inputs on this. Thanks
Any -extra- additional hours are taxing to you after awhile. There is no getting around that. To simply put, the happiest people I met when I worked at HP, Qualcomm, and Intuit were the data scientists. However, most people would literally kill for the offer from the HF you got.
It's up to you where you want to head.
What will make you happier? People on here are in finance for that $. It is the simple truth, IMO. As far as burnout, there's plenty of posts on the forums to refer to, search around.
I'm not exactly sure where I would like to go haha. Part of me thinks that extra hours are doable, but I may be wrong.
Tech is cushy, but I'm concerned about the prospects maybe 4 years down the road. I would say maybe like 1 out of 8 engineering type roles get promoted to a lead or get manager responsibilities, and I don't want to get shoehorned. At that point, transferring firms is a possibility but it's hard for that to be a guarantee. In that regard, I like finance more because it's more about your work experience. Surprisingly, I wasn't fond of the politics in tech (had an internship) because it was sometimes hard to get things accomplished due to stubborn people.
I work in high-tech, a role similar to what you describe, as a outside consultant partner with one of the big firms. If I could do it over again, I'd go the finance route. It would be a lot easier to move from finance into tech analytics/consulting at a later time with the financial background, while it would be much harder to spend 10 years in tech and break into finance. Some areas do overlap though. If you do get into tech, choose your technology wisely as it can define your career, as well as don't get into commodity "programs" as you'll be competing with H1-B visas for your job, especially at the big companies.
To address your comment about "not working as hard", tech has a relaxed reputation (t-shirt and jeans type culture) but people work every bit as hard as other industries. Wearing nice business attire is an easy way to stand out. There are stubborn people in every org so don't base your decision on that. Just learn how to deal with it, and get things done anyways.
I've worked in tech shops and moved to a financial tech role in Asset Management, albeit "backoffice", I'm in the 150k W2 pay range. I agree with the post above... and regret my first few years in tech.
It's way too laid back in tech unless you're talking Google type firms vs. the disciplined culture in finance. It feels like I was on vacation when I compare my tech vs.my finance coding job. Went through a drastic increase in productivity looking at the fast paced and disciplined culture in finance, it has been a great influence on me vs. the jeans and tshirt and game room culture in tech.
I was offered the same comp at the tech shop when I announced my resignation to take the finance job. I'm on the CFA path too, and have an MS in CS too (earned on a full scholarship).
Go finance is what I suggest - you can always easily switch to tech anytime.. those jeans and tshirt folk jobs will always take you. Finance roles are generally more selective to get into.
Plus if you want to get a CFA, it is perhaps less relevant to do so while in tech. Remember there is a minimum number of years in finance requirement to ultimately get the CFA charter.
At 100-150k incomes, the few extra hours don't really matter. You can easily make up the difference by taking some side consulting projects down the line if you feel a financial hit (I've done side consulting over the years on top of day jobs and it is not hard to grab an extra 20-30k a year spending a few evenings and weekends through the year on extra coding on the side). Or you can work out something with your boss 1-2 years after you settle in to make your finance job a little less demanding.
Also, maybe not as important but when I was in tech, I didn't really care about what the "business" was, and couldn't really leverage it for personal gain. For example, if you work as a coder or data science guy in a healthcare/pharma analytics type firm, you can't really gain a direct benefit from learning about the business (except in the extreme case where you do your own startup). But in finance, you provide the same coding (or modelling) skillset but in exchange you pick up so much about the world of investing.. when you have access to capital saved up or from an investor, you can leverage it for personal gain in parallel to your day job.
I appreciate your comments. Not too sure exactly if the team I might be on is a 'commodity program (or whatever you mean)'. It's a lot more common for people to go from finance to the tech industry, and I do think it is much harder the other way around. but it'll take a solid 4-7 years before in finance before I approach the same comfort I might have when first starting out with the higher-paying job / possibly being less happy. Not exactly sure which option I'll be better off in.
If I go with the finance company, most likely getting the CFA. In industry, the MBA carries MUCH more weight.
I'm gonna be working in one of Google, Microsoft, or Amazon's cloud computing divisions which are pretty much the giants in that space if that matters.
I wouldn't forego a brand name, in a revenue generating role, to work in a glorified support (cost) role at an HF.
This^
Take the tech role. You will be atleast be directly responsible for whatever analytics you drive or produce. In finance, analytics is mostly used for negative or positive assurance. i.e. confirming stuff they already know with hard data. I have worked in analytics in quantitative finance (not HF but portfolio management analytics for a BB) and it is not what it is made out to be.
Data analytic is the future. Keep that in mind.
If you were really driving revenue in the tech role your compensation would reflect that. Ask the guys 2-3 years into the tech team if they bought their ferrari's yet - they didn't.
You're essentially worth the same financially speaking either ways. I don't believe these tech roles are the equivalent for the wall st hotshot front office type roles. That is to say, you're not going to be producing any different at either places in the grand scheme of things.
Go for tech environment. Technology is the future.
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