Career after MFE...

[chervelle]

I'm currently in the midst of a career switch into the banking sector and hope to gather information of the work-life environment in banks. Btw I'm from Singapore and I was in the IT(SAP) industry. In my previous job, I found that it was rather stressful and had no work-life balance. I like challenges and working hard, but I hate bringing work back home and I want my weekends free of work. I believe that I excel better in a moderately stressed environment. No stress makes me bored, but long highly stressful hours make me unproductive. In short, I think IT is not suitable for me in the long run.

The lifestyle of some of my banking friends in middle and back office really impressed me. They seemed to have lesser stress, rather fixed working hours (no more than 10hours a day) and receive much more pay than I do. Also, finance jobs seemed more challenging, exciting and fulfilling than IT jobs.

So why am I considering a MFE? Well, I remembered my favorite subject in my secondary school days was Maths. MFE, after all, still make use of some IT skills. MBA is out of my choice as I do not have much working experience. So, hopefully by doing a MFE and maybe concurrently with a CFA level 1 would help me break into the banking industry.

I would appreciate some insights on the stress level of different job roles in the bank. Roles that are highly stressful are big no no to me. I've often heard of the terrible working conditions in front office despite the huge pay checks. So in your opinion, what are some of the job roles, which are not so stressful, that a MFE graduate could get?

 

[alain]

If you go to MFE consider your stress level to go up exponentially... and forget about the weekends.

If you want a job in backoffice, you are better of trying to get your friends to get you in the door but if you think IT is boring, you haven't seen a back office job then.

 

[kean]

You want comfort, go for academia life style. No stress.

Back Office is not suitable for one who used to work in SAP field. Do you want to be a BOM - banck office man.

 

[chervelle]

Well, I don't want to comment on which industry is more stressful....
Stress may be different to different people. Some find certain tasks stressful, but others may find it to be alright. Company and department culture plays a part as well.

Those people I come across are middle office fixed income analyst, product controller, back office settlements and one MFE graduate who worked as a quantitative analyst. They work in European banks and they really kept to the 10 hours 5days work. True, their main stress is with handling money. Other than that, they agreed that their job is not very stressful and it is more exciting than those in the IT department.

So, I believe there must be other finance roles which are both challenging and have work-life balance. I really want to delicate and balance my time with other areas of life. Stress is fine for me, but not long hours of commitment.

So which roles do u think are the most stressful, moderately stressful and least stressful?
and why?

 

[chervelle]

I could have accepted a Phd scholarship and started my lecturing career back then, but I don't want to go into academia life so early in my life.

Why do u feel that back office is not suitable for SAP consultants?
How about middle office?

You want comfort, go for academia life style. No stress.

Back Office is not suitable for one who used to work in SAP field. Do you want to be a BOM - banck office man.

 

[bobbychopra]

You could also think of Actuarial Science
Actuarial science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

However, I wouldn't say that an MFE would help you work in a moderately stressful environment. You might probably be just as stressed or even more. Working in the Finance Industry is akin to working in a mission critical environment. There is *no* excuse for errors. Depending on the opportunity you acquire, you might have traders shouting at you in front of an audience when an application is incorrect or not working [even if you didn't write any code for it]. You also have to juggle with priorities and might be working on more than 1 application at any time and have the ability to switch between different projects. Of course, I could care less and work the standard hours and get paid no bonus and lead a less stressful life, but I prefer to be diligent and exhaustive. I take pride in my work and I love it.

I have worked in the software industry [worked for Microsoft in Redmond, WA], where I was more stressed than in some Hedge Funds. It is the environment that is to blame and not the nature of the job or the degree. If you are taking your work back home, there is something wrong with the Project Management. Your project manager or you might be "over-promising" or might not be "pushing back" on dates. These might not be the exact reasons, but I have found them to be the factor in my past environments.

I think you need to examine what you would like to do in life and if it is worth working the required hours. If you think the number of hours is out of proportion, it might be a different issue. The company might not be a good fit.

 

[bobbychopra]

Also, you have worked in an IT environment: automated and streamlined processes. You have developed solutions to reduce operational risk.

I cannot imagine you conducting back-office or middle-office work [which might come off as mundane, but extremely necessary]. If anything, you might still want to use your IT skills and help the company with their work. Such an environment is usually found in a small company. I am working in a small environment and I see my co-workers who are in those departments and believe me they are stressed.

As an example: for the past couple of months because of the sub-prime meltdown, back-office and middle-office is working twice as hard.

 

[kean]

Friend, I consider myself very blunt sometimes. Fortunately this forum members are nice enought to tolerate me..

What I like to say here is that you don't even sure or know what you want, how can we help?
Secondly, my guess is you want something not so stress but can earn good money. If you know this type of goody, please post up here to inform me or the rest.

Nothing come easy in our life except you have a rich dad, friend. You have to sacrifice if you want power and money...of course chick....cigars...daaaaaa.

I reckon you don't have to go extreme to be successful. I know many people could not find their ideal job so they think being a quant is a fancy thing. You just have to do what you love most so you do not regret when you bye this world one day. (my apology to use some x words here). I mean it from the bottom of my heart..good luck.

 

[chervelle]

For me, I guess both the environment and job nature are to be blamed.
I worked in a consulting firm on a SAP support project with rather nasty client. I was required to multi-task to resolve problems and meet very tight deadlines. I ran against time 24x7 (tried not to touch work in the weekends and after hours at home, but work plied up) and I wasted time talking to unreasonable clients without IT knowledge. Who would like to entertain calls in the middle of the night? Project management plays some part as well because there was a shortage of consultants and yet they reduced the team size.

The circle of IT friends I know are mostly not doing well. They come from all areas of IT across various industries. They felt the same thing. Stress, long hours and lowly paid. Many dropped out of IT into other careers. Many, including brilliant scholarship holders and seasoned IT managers, regretted studying IT. It is rather depressing!

Some facts that I have thought over:
1. I am losing interest in IT and gaining interest in finance.
2. IT is changing so much faster than finance. As one grows older, it is harder for the person to adapt to the change (this explains why top management are often resistant to re-engineering initiatives).
3. Commitments in IT is often not proportional to money.
4. The majority of MFE candidates are career changers. Most of them are from engineering and IT.
5. I am lacking finance knowledge!
6. Finance is an important part of life, and money is the reason why we work. Finance is the core, IT is the support.
7. I do not have a clear career direction after losing my interest in IT... there are limitations to what a IT graduate can do. :wall

 

[chervelle]

No worries, Kean. I won't take it to heart
Well, I agree with you that is not a job without stress but earn good money. But, they are jobs which are stressful yet with no good money:D

What I'm hoping to find is balance. After all life is short. No matter how much I earn, I cannot take them with me. I want a career which is more proportional to the effort I put in.

Friend, I consider myself very blunt sometimes. Fortunately this forum members are nice enought to tolerate me..

What I like to say here is that you don't even sure or know what you want, how can we help?
Secondly, my guess is you want something not so stress but can earn good money. If you know this type of goody, please post up here to inform me or the rest.

Nothing come easy in our life except you have a rich dad, friend. You have to sacrifice if you want power and money...of course chick....cigars...daaaaaa.

I reckon you don't have to go extreme to be successful. I know many people could not find their ideal job so they think being a quant is a fancy thing. You just have to do what you love most so you do not regret when you bye this world one day. (my apology to use some x words here). I mean it from the bottom of my heart..good luck.

 

[eric]

For me, I guess both the environment and job nature are to be blamed.
I worked in a consulting firm on a SAP support project with rather nasty client. I was required to multi-task to resolve problems and meet very tight deadlines. I ran against time 24x7 (tried not to touch work in the weekends and after hours at home, but work plied up) and I wasted time talking to unreasonable clients without IT knowledge. Who would like to entertain calls in the middle of the night? Project management plays some part as well because there was a shortage of consultants and yet they reduced the team size.

Chervelle,

I have been lurking in this forum for quite a while but did not feel compelled to post until I saw yours. I do not have any answers to you inquiry, but I will help by describing what people working in an investment bank think.

For me, I guess both the environment and job nature are to be blamed. I worked in an investment bank on [insert product specialty here] with nasty clients. I was required to multi-task to [do whatever] and meet very tight budgets. I ran against time 24x7 and I wasted time talking to unreasonable clients without common sense (not to mention general financial or product knowledge.) Who would like to entertain calls in the middle of the night? Project management plays some part as well because there was a shortage of sales/support/etc etc and yet they reduced the team size AND doubled the budget.

Sounds familiar

 

[chervelle]

Sounds familiar

yes, hahaha

 

[Yuriy]

Just like I said in another thread, finance ain't less stressfull than IT