operations

Not a troll. I know I'm just not cut out for high finance. I don't mind working less even if it means getting paid less, but I often hear how bad back office is. There has to be at least one person happy being at the back office. So, does anyone here work in Ops and would be happy to discuss getting the role?

19 May 2020

Hello, I am a recent grad from a top undergrad B school with a Finance major. Unfortunately, by the time I was deciding I wanted to pursue I-banking, I was already starting my senior year. I graduated with a somewhat mediocre 3.2 GPA. I just took an offer at a large media company on their business dev/operations team because this job market is crazy right now. Does anyone have any advice on how to eventually make the switch over to finance or investment banking? Did me accepting this offer ruin my chances? thanks!

23 Aug 2020

Currently a second year IB analyst at a MM shop in NYC, and wondering what attractive exit opportunities there may be apart from PE/HF. Primarily interested in something strategy oriented with a high-growth company. Understand corporate development is somewhat aligned here, and in the right scenario I would be open to that, but would more so like to have exposure to broader strategy and not be restricted to asset acquisition/divestment. Appreciate any help and more than willing to provide additonal detail if that would be helpful.

27 Dec 2019

Hi everyone, I have applied to both the Operations and Risk Summer Analyst positions at Goldman Sachs, but I am having a hard time understanding their day-to-day and responsibilities. What does an Enterprise Risk Analyst do at Goldman Sachs, what skills do they utilize? What does an Operations Analyst do? What are their responsibilities/tasks? etc. Thanks!

24 Sep 2020

Does anyone know how to find a comprehensive list of private equity firms that have an operations group? Or does anyone know of any besides Bain Cap, TPG, and Blackstone?

29 Aug 2018

I'd like to reach out to this forum for some advice, as I am currently in a tough position as I look to enter consulting. For a few months, I have been trying to enter the management consulting industry. I went to a target public school (top 15 undergraduate business school) and started my career with an oil & gas supermajor, supporting functions such as supply chain, procurement, and operations. I have been in this industry for ~3 years since completing my undergraduate degree. I am trying to leverage my supply chain experience & energy industry background to enter the consulting industry

07 Dec 2018

obviously most people here are IBD or bust, but for those of us happy making a decent living and prioritize work and family time, what are some of the better roles in the BO and MO? the only real BO/MO role i am familiar with is Trade Support so i am interested in knowing what else is out there. i am prepared for the snarky comments but i do know there are a good handful of people with the back office/operations experience that will chime in. thanks all!

07 Jan 2018

Hello guys, I am a currently a Sophomore from a complete non-target and I got an interview for Operations at Barclays at Whippany, NJ. My questions are: is this a good way for me to spend my summer? Has anyone here gone through the interview and summer internship role? I am pretty sure that the role is not even an IB operations one. Here is the structure of the interview: Two 40-minute interviews · Business Meeting (business specific challenge) · Values based interview I have been trying really hard to get an internship at a boutique but so far no luck so this is the best opportunity I have

28 Oct 2019

Searched around and could only find some threads from 5+ years ago, was curious if anyone could shed some more light on the operational improvement roles available at PE firms? Everything I was finding was indicating that some funds have full fledged operations teams, whereas others will only have senior operating partners (usually people with 20+ years experience), is this still the case? Are there any junior roles available for someone more interested in that aspect in PE and not necessarily improving a company via adding debt/financial engineering?

03 Apr 2018

The Truth About The Back Office Hey guys, so I know there are a few posts about the back office (i.e Operations) on this site but I just thought I'd add my 2 cents as I recently left for another job after spending 1 year in BB Ops. 1. Pay: I don't know about other banks or regions but in mine, the base starting salary (non-NYC) was around ~45k with a signing bonus of ~7.5k. During training in NYC, I learned that my NYC counterparts received a base of ~60k and signing bonus of ~10k. This is actually not too bad, considering that I live in a VERY cheap area. Unless you are an idiot, you are able

05 Jan 2017

Hi monkeys, Was just offered an operations position on a leveraged derivatives team at KKR. Should I take this job? Currently I work in Ops for a large BD and am actively pursuing credit analyst roles and boutique IB roles. The operations work I do now is mind numbing. Is this Operations job at KKR another dead end? The team I would be working with every day is small and growing - 5 people who are all in FO positions. They're analysts, associates and MDs, which makes me think I could leverage that facetime into something more analytical. Should I go for the job cause it's a major PE firm? Or

15 May 2018

i know what ops is at a broker dealer. but what is ops in F500 or even much smaller companies? for instance a contact of mine has recently started working in "operations" at a sexy startup in san francisco. it just seems like a kind of catch-all job title. but is there a typical description of what ops actually is/does?

13 Sep 2016

Hi Everyone, After having spent a little over a year in corporate finance and not liking it at all, I am now searching for a new job and wanted to get people's opinion on finding a job in sales vs operations. Ideally I would like to be working for a small company, probably an early stage start up, and have been going back and forth between which function would be better for someone early in their career. On one hand, sales is very important and many times represents the economic engine of most organizations. Almost all early stage companies need people who are excellent at selling. If you're

14 Jan 2017

I'm a senior in college and I recently received an offer at Accenture Federal as a level 11 Technology Engineer Analyst, with a career track of Client Delivery and Operations. I've been reading about this track online and have found mostly negative sentiments. I was wondering if someone could provide some more insight into work style and promotional opportunities- although I know it's all highly variable. I am someone without strong technical skills but I have very strong communicational and analytical skills. Is there opportunity to move around, and how technical is this work?

27 Mar 2020

Greetings, I just accepted a position for a back office front office. I know that making this switch is a seriously daunting task, and many fail at getting it done. Does anyone have any tips or insight as to how I can make this happen? I'm willing to go to as many networking events as needed and to stay late every day to prove myself. Any feedback is much appreciated. Thanks,

25 Jun 2016

Hey everyone. I would appreciate some insights on how to go about thinking through this... Long story short, I find myself really interested in becoming an operator and would like to pursue the path towards an operating partner role at a fund or an executive at a startup. I currently work at a growth equity shop where I've been doing a ton of portfolio company support, from recruiting to strategic finance. There's definitely more support needed in other functions down the line but I'd really like to know what kind of operations I should be focused on gaining responsibility in so that I can

04 Jun 2018

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18 Jul 2014

Hey guys, I need help deciding between internship offers at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan.. They are both in the same division (Operations Division). I am aware of Goldman's "prestige" but I'm also taking both firm's culture into consideration. I don't have much familiarity about finance firms as this is the first time I will be working in this industry so I'm looking to those who have more experience. Thanks!

24 Sep 2014

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18 Aug 2014

Hi, I'm 29 years old working at a tier 1 in New York in Operations. I'm seeking advice on how I should try to transition into working into the Finance department or financial department in another firm. I have a BS in Finance from a non-target, and only held odd jobs for ~5 years out of college. It wasn't until the past couple of years that I started to take my career seriously. I've had a few temp jobs at Financial/Accounting firms including one of the Big 4's but they were all entry-level. I'm currently 7 months into a temp position at the mentioned BB in the Operations department. They

23 Mar 2016

Hi all, Looking for some advice, from a strategy/front office perspective. How can I move from back office technology to a front office/strategy role? I'm trying to work on something a bit more connected to the business end of the bank. I want to earn a bit more money, but the main reason is an interest in finance. I'm currently a systems/Technology analyst having worked for 2 large European investment banks, working in operations technology, with some exposure to Treasury/finance. It feels quite detached from what the business actually does. I've managed to get a number of pretty great

12 Jun 2017

I'm thinking about making the switch from a small consulting firm to Fixed Income Ops (MO?) (associate level) at a top firm in their Dallas office. I realize this is uncommon, but let me explain. My current consulting gig is comfy with decent pay. My issue is that A) firm is unheard of and B) The work is very niche (reg reporting for muni's). Both of these things make me fear that the longer I stay, the less exit opportunities I would have. Also there's no culture and just ready for change. Finished up my last interviews for Ops and discussed pay before a pending offer. (75-80k + bonus and OT

29 Jun 2017

This was me two short months ago. I would like to start by apologizing to the entire WSO community for trying to argue with what decades of Banking wisdom had taught the finance community; as it turns out, Ops is fucking shit! However, in an attempt to retain some sense of pride I still disagree on the reason why it is shit. In my opinion, its not the lack of prestige (I'm not that big into ego trips) or the mind numbing work (from what I've heard IBD can get very monotonous; to me, its the lack of structure.

29 Jun 2012

Hi everyone, I was hired right out of college working a commercial lending operations position in the back office at a fairly large bank (EUR185B AUM). As most operations roles go, this one became very repetitive and also has minimal room for growth. I have been working the same role for the past two years and have been trying to jump to a role working in capital markets, investments, equity trading, or something in a revenue generating capacity for the past six months. My problem and question is this - Most employers hiring for a role outside of ops will discard a resume belonging to an

20 Jul 2015

22 Mar 2015

I have an upcoming interview so open to any interview tips! Is it a good role? Any advice would be appreciated!

06 Apr 2018

Hey guys,

10 Dec 2014

Hi all, It seems like McK recently created two practices besides traditional strategy practice. The recruiting process seems to be different for these two, from the general recruiting. Does anyone have any first-hand experience or knows somebody in either of these practices, and can speak about them? Are they valid options? Do they charge similar hourly rates as general McK consultants?

06 Nov 2014

Background: Sophomore at a semi-target Interned at a big 4 this past summer Interested in IBD I just got an offer for BB ops in NY. That said, is ops looked down upon? Is it practical to believe that I can I land an IBD internship during my junior year after having interned at a big 4 and BB ops? Should I accept the offer and continue to seek other opportunities throughout the year? Should I decline? Any advice is appreciated.

22 Aug 2011

Well I was very naive and uninformed throughout the recruiting process about what exactly operations is. I just saw the great name of the company and figured it would look good. Boy was I wrong. I figured "Hey, it can't be as bad as everyone says on WSO", much to my disappointment, it is. The task are very mundane-that is, when I actually have something to do. Granted, I've only been here a few months, but in operations your learn absolutely nothing of value. It grew from liking the easy hours and laid back culture at first, to pure loathing. Please, prospective job monkeys, if an operations

21 Sep 2010

I'm interviewing at a hedge fund for an operations role ('Portfolio Analyst')...I don't have any modeling experience so I understand why I can't fill a real analyst role in IBD.. however, everyone seems to claim that operations is a dead end and I have a hard time believing that committing to a job at 22 years old should signal anything close to a dead end...i believe that ops is a great way to learn the business and progress in a few years.. when asked "where do you see yourself in 5 years" in an operations interview at a hedge fund, what are some good responses?

06 Aug 2011

in a few months i will be starting an investment banking operations job with JP Morgan. this job is typically considered a back office job. however, it has been described to me by the employer as a middle office type of job, because of the direct and immediate exposure i will get to upper management and the front office. i was wondering if anyone could give me some insight into how hard it might be to start in operations (specifically this job where i will be exposed to the front office) and move to the front office after getting some experience. the front office is where i ultimately want to

27 Apr 2010

Just had some questions about Consulting in general I was wondering about the different types of consulting, what they refer to, their respective prestige level, and the companies that have that specific consulting. 1. So when people say "Management Consulting" or when a Firm has a "Management Consulting Unit", they are referring to specifically their strategy consulting? Correct? Management Consulting does not include Operations, IT, or Industry Specific Consulting? And in general, we have Management/Strategy Consulting, Operations Consulting, IT Consulting, and then other Industry Specific Consulting? 2. Management Consulting is generally considered prestigious (Lets define "Prestigious" as what MBA schools like the most).

11 Sep 2010

Hello, all. Thank you for showing interest in my forum. I am a third year college student who has been offered an internship position at the Securities Division of Goldman Sachs and at the Operations Divisions at Barclays Capital, respectively. I have hard time making decision on which offer to accept. Here are some of my thoughts/information regarding each position, so please let me know your opinion as to which position I should accept: Operations at Barcap (Tokyo Office) 1. daily work schedule is ideal; a day starts at 8:45 and ends at 6PM 2. Pay is great and probably slightly better than the internship position at GS 3. I think I am better suited to middle office than I am to front 4. Some of my future colleagues and boss whom I have already met are really nice

15 Nov 2011

Shit just got real for the IT folks over at Morgan Stanley. The same Chinese hackers who busted into Google last year also breached Morgan Stanley. The attack lasted for months and the damage was substantial. Dubbed "Operation Aurora" by cyber-security giant McAfee, Inc., it is now believed that hundreds of American companies were compromised in the attack. Morgan Stanley is the first major bank to have detected the attack. [quote]"They were hit hard by the real Aurora attacks (not the crap in the news)," wrote Phil Wallisch, a senior security engineer at HBGary, who said he read an internal

01 Mar 2011

I just got an offer from Citi for their portfolio analytics group in operations. Does anyone have any experience working there. What is the career path like? What is the salary range for new hires? They offered me 55K. Is it hard to move up to a front office role? Basically, I just want to know what my future will be like working at Citi in ops. Any comment or input will be greatly appreciated

04 Dec 2009

Any info about this group? pay, exit opps, etc. Seems to be a pretty top notch team.

03 Apr 2012

Hey Guys, I'm at a crossroads of sorts in my young career and thought it would be helpful to get some input from everyone here. I find many of the posters on this site are very knowledgeable plus no one knows me personally, so I think this could be a great help. Let me give you some info on where I would like to be in the long run, and then some background about me. I have no specific role that I am shooting for long term, however I know that I want it to be something that requires me to source and execute investment ideas. I know that's broad, but I think that's a good thing at this point. Some careers that stick out at me are becoming a PM or working in VC. For my next role, I would like to pursue something that helps me to learn the skills I would need for this.

06 Aug 2011

I have an interview for an operations position at a buy side investment management shop that is pretty large. Due to a lack of experience I am hoping to get my foot in the door by getting this operations spot that backs up the portfolio management and research groups. I know a lot of people say that this is a wrong way to try and do it but at this point I feel good about it because I met a few examples of people who have made the jump from ops to a different front office spot.

20 Nov 2012

Someone really close to me will be graduating this spring/summer with a math degree from a top 50 state school. He is very smart, obviously quantitative, but for X reasons did not do well in school and will graduate with a 2.5-2.8 GPA. I think an operations job would be a great option for him: low level of stress with a decent salary. How competitive is breaking into ops? Can it be done given his GPA at a top 50 university? Can people take the same approach to getting into OPS that they can for front office jobs? For example, will reaching out to alums and asking for information interviews dramatically increase one's chances? Thanks

16 Dec 2010

hi all, long time member but very occasional poster. so i am definitely in the minority here in that i didn't go to an excellent school, don't have incredible internship/work experience and i am just generally not up to snuff as it relates to most of you. right now i work in middle office operations "trade management" at a large broker dealer (one of the big guys). it is MIND NUMBINGLY boring and as i have always been interested in the real estate world, i am looking to make a move. some very, very basic steps i've taken is to acquire a few books to familiarize myself with the terminology and

16 Jul 2015

Hoping to get a few opinions here. I'm really wanting to do Teach For America for two years after college, but I'd like to potentially do IB/consulting after the commitment. I know that TFA has a solid network and some big corporate partners (BB, big 3 consultancies, google, etc), but I think only 2-5% applicants through its career services actually get offers. The thing is, I'm also weighing accepting an ops position right now (not ideal, but hey, maybe I could leverage it into something better a few years down the line). I'd like to do TFA, but I also don't want to risk losing street cred in the business world - any thoughts? I've got some solid internships, but I don't think that would make up for being 25 without a FT job in finance. Would you have to do an MBA after TFA?

19 May 2010

Hi, I'm really interested in operations, as well as finance. I know a lot of people say that it's not a good idea to go into operations if you have hopes of landing the front office, but if you want to stick around in operations, is it still really that bad? What is the typical career path like? I'm not nearly ambitious as most people here, and am only looking to eventually be in the 150-200k range, so is that possible in BB operations as you climb the ladder? Also, how difficult is it to break into operations from a non-target school? I plan on keeping a high GPA, so as long as I do that, is it possible to get in? thanks

09 Jul 2009

Is taking a job in a 1.5 yr Development Program at Vanguard better than Operations at bank like GS/JPM? Cheers

04 Nov 2010

I had a 3.5 (will graduate with 3.4 probably) from a non-ivy target going into full-time recruiting wanting to get into trading. I go to a pretty good target, in which in prior years people wouldn't think of applying to ops. So October came a long, and things were going brutal, so I decided to apply for Operations. Got a few offers, went with the one in NYC. By the time I had to give them a response in mid-November, I wasn't close to a front-office NYC job , so I accepted. (my friends and girlfriend were going to be in NYC, I wasn't going to go to something like North Carolina)

02 May 2009

So I was just extended my first job offer since graduating. It's a long term temp position in the FX Operations department. I'll be working in the account management area. Nothing to glamorous, but I am indeed happy to be employed and at least its in finance. I have other things still in the works for some other ideal job opportunities that I will still pursue. Ideally I would like to end up in equity research or IB. With that in mind, how can I go about using this position in operations as a stepping stone to reach my ultimate goals. If I have been in contact with somebody in IB there, can I inform them and offer to stay late and help? Ask if I can shadow when I'm done with my hours?

10 May 2013

I have a superday interview with Citi for ops next friday. I've never done a superday before. How does it work? More specifically, has anyone done the Citi ops superday? What did they ask you? What was the format? Etc..

15 Oct 2008

Ok, so I'm a long-time reader and forum lurker, but I could use some helpful feedback from you guys since I have a decision to make in the next day or two. I'm a graduating senior with a 3.9 GPA, major in business admin, minor in economics (and music actually), and departmental honors in economics. I have great extracurriculars too (varsity sports, president of campus activities, some music ensembles). But I come from an extreme (heavy emphasis on extreme) non-target school.

12 May 2011

How are the different tracks viewed at McKinsey? Are some more 'prestigeous' than others? Is operations at McKinsey like back office at a bank?

17 Dec 2009

Hi, I recently graduated from a target school with a master's degree (not MBA). I had 6 interviews since I graduated and I don't think anything will convert to an offer from different reasons: - I was clearly not a good fit from the beginning and just wasted their and my time. - They were interviewing internal candidates and I had to be better than perfect to actually get an offer. - They gave preference to bachelor degree holders or basically wasted my time. - I interviewed for a great position and did great with everything (e.g., interviews, modeling exam) but somebody very senior shoved his own person for the position. I'm yet to hear back from 4 interviews, but I know already that anything of the situations above will happen.

09 Mar 2013