Hedge Fund Developer Job Offer

[njran]

I am new to the financial Industry and need some advice on a job offer:

Background:
I'm currently a software developer in the telecommunications industry working on Android applications and framework for one of the largest Android phone makers. I have several years experience working in technologies such as Java, C++, and Objective C.

Job Offer:
I have a Job offer for a developer role within a top Hedge fund of a large investment bank.
The job description involves the following:
-Partnering with Researchers, Traders, and Portfolio Managers to build software to manage strategies in hedged portfolios
-Design systems that automate risk management, trading and execution.
-Involved in all aspects of the hedge fund business

The Interview:
The interview was with Senior Developers, Quants, Support Managers, and Traders. The questions involved CS concepts, Java, algorithms, basic finance concepts (no math), and general behavior.
I will be physically sitting in with the Traders, researchers ect...

Question:
As someone who is very new to the financial industry, Its hard to spot a good job from a bad job. Based on the somewhat limited Job description, does this seem like a good entrance into the financial industry? What questions should I ask prior to joining? I've always been interested in entering this industry and this seems like a good opportunity but would like input before making a decision.

 

[pingu]

I have a Job offer for a developer role within a top Hedge fund of a large investment bank.

This is probably not true if this is an American Bank.

 

[njran]

This is probably not true if this is an American Bank.

Care to explain? Maybe my vagueness is causing confusion. I am trying to stay somewhat anonymous in-case the organization is also on this forum. Its within the Tech division of one of the Big Investment Banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan).

 

[mhy]

PM me with a precise job description (you can delete out parts for privacy) and I'll tell you what it is

 

[pingu]

Care to explain? Maybe my vagueness is causing confusion. I am trying to stay somewhat anonymous in-case the organization is also on this forum. Its within the Tech division of one of the Big Investment Banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan).

There are no more Hedge Funds inside of banks. Unless something changed recently, that is illegal by law.

 

[Ian Kaplan]

I think that one source of confusion here is that you write "I have a job offer", rather than "there's a job opportunity I'm interested in applying for". Later it sounds like the case is the latter.

At least in my experience, jobs like this are pretty hard to get, at least in the current job market. Also, the big salaries seem to be a thing of the past. the salaries that I've seen, when adjusted for location, are not much higher than the salaries you get as a software engineer in the Bay Area. So check out the bonus and opportunity to work you way into building software that actually does trading. This is where the real money is.

 

[C S]

I am new to the financial Industry and need some advice on a job offer:

Background:
I'm currently a software developer in the telecommunications industry working on Android applications and framework for one of the largest Android phone makers. I have several years experience working in technologies such as Java, C++, and Objective C.

Job Offer:
I have a Job offer for a developer role within a top Hedge fund of a large investment bank.
The job description involves the following:
-Partnering with Researchers, Traders, and Portfolio Managers to build software to manage strategies in hedged portfolios
-Design systems that automate risk management, trading and execution.
-Involved in all aspects of the hedge fund business

The Interview:
The interview was with Senior Developers, Quants, Support Managers, and Traders. The questions involved CS concepts, Java, algorithms, basic finance concepts (no math), and general behavior.
I will be physically sitting in with the Traders, researchers ect...

Question:
As someone who is very new to the financial industry, Its hard to spot a good job from a bad job. Based on the somewhat limited Job description, does this seem like a good entrance into the financial industry? What questions should I ask prior to joining? I've always been interested in entering this industry and this seems like a good opportunity but would like input before making a decision.

As someone said, your question sounds a bit odd for someone that has an actual job offer. You'd generally have a series of interviews, and given that it's one of the bulge brackets, you're going to have to wait weeks, if not months, before they finally get around to formalizing a job offer.

As a non financial developer, I think you'll be surprised by the level of maintenance involved in typical developer roles on Wall Street. There's a ton of legacy code that for obvious and non-obvious reasons cannot be changed or easily upgraded/replaced. The fact that you physically sit with the traders is a big indication that the role will involve a hefty support component (they aren't going to take up a valuable spot on the trading floor for a developer to sit around designing software and chat up the traders...it's because they figure it's the most efficient way for the trader complaints/demands to get to you, the fixer).

So I'd definitely ask about what greenfield projects you'd be working on, if any. It's also unlikely that you'd head or be a primary on any projects that involve "automat[ing] risk management, trading, and execution", since those areas involve a high degree of specialized, financial knowledge (eg understanding how positions are managed and booked into risk systems, how trades are executed on markets etc etc). So you'd basically be assisting the guys that know that stuff inside and out, maybe fleshing out their primary designs.

 

[Parallax]

All of those firms that the OP listed also have asset management divisions. The term "hedge fund" is used and abused, and most people don't even really understand what an investment bank is...

Just some thoughts about all of this...that's all...

 

[njran]

I would like to thank everyone for the helpful comments. I now have a better understand of what i'm getting into.

As someone said, your question sounds a bit odd for someone that has an actual job offer. You'd generally have a series of interviews, and given that it's one of the bulge brackets, you're going to have to wait weeks, if not months, before they finally get around to formalizing a job offer.

Yes, the interview process was very intense. It involved 3 phone interviews over a 3 week period and 1 intense full day on site interview. The total process from the initial phone screen to formalizing an offer is closing in on 3 months (due to the holiday and background checks)

As a non financial developer, I think you'll be surprised by the level of maintenance involved in typical developer roles on Wall Street. There's a ton of legacy code that for obvious and non-obvious reasons cannot be changed or easily upgraded/replaced.

I hear a lot about "support" in the financial industry which does make me nervous as this concept seems to be different in non-finance software jobs. During the interview I was told that there was an entire separate team devoted to support but I would have to support some times on the "rotation". They kept assuring me support would be very minimal which gave me the impression that support seems to be a turn off to developers

So I'd definitely ask about what greenfield projects you'd be working on, if any.

Thanks, I'll make sure this is clear. The interviewers definitely mentioned designing new systems over top of legacy code (basically modernizing the old systems).

 

[mhy]

I hear a lot about "support" in the financial industry which does make me nervous as this concept seems to be different in non-finance software jobs. During the interview I was told that there was an entire separate team devoted to support but I would have to support some times on the "rotation". They kept assuring me support would be very minimal which gave me the impression that support seems to be a turn off to developers

There is usually a support team but they are not developers and they don't have deep understanding of the systems, just enough to put out fires and keep things going. Often times when they face an issue that isn't in their checklist or manual, they just escalate it to developers. Depending on the area, quant teams can also be left dealing with support issues (Where I work, pricing issues sometimes go to pure dev teams and sometimes go to the quant teams)

Coverage and how much support you need to do is entirely a function or your team size, location/timezone, and competence of your front-line support guys. In a previous job I was woken up at 3AM by a guy in Tokyo because our development team was all in New York and no one in the Tokyo support group could figure out an issue (we also had a huge team in India but they were useless because they weren't business-specific and could only do really basic things like restart services and retrieve log files). This may or may not be the case; again really depends on your situation. You should assume interviewers are under-exaggerating or de-emphasizing anything related to support, because it sucks.

Thanks, I'll make sure this is clear. The interviewers definitely mentioned designing new systems over top of legacy code (basically modernizing the old systems).

There is nothing special about this, BTW. Banks have 10-year old and 20-year old systems that they are constantly replacing. There's no shortage of legacy systems so it's a continual battle to keep things up to date with both technology and the global markets.