People cite wanting 'banking experience'.
When you finally get there, you find out there is nothing to it.
The key skill is not technical - it's tolerating a lot of red tape, BS, meetings, documents, wasted budgets and slow progress.
One large bank didn't even get their servers within 6 months, and had 10 managers for 9 engineers.
Fintechs are the future - they focus on tech, they're faster and are harder to work for technically.
Case in point: compare app-first banks which you can open in 10 minutes to legacy high street banks that tell you to get an appointment weeks away.
When I was racing to open accounts to spread money for FSCS protection just before Brexit vote, this was the exactly experience I had as a consumer.
Investment banks have a bit of technical jargon that it helps to know in conversation, although you probably won't be working on anything actually needing this knowledge as an IT guy.
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Options | pre-agreed right to buy at a specified strike price on or before given date - Buyer = owner of option, can exercise and seller is obliged to fulfill transaction - Buyer pays to reserve this right whether he uses it or not - this essentially allows a buyer to gamble and over leverage in case the price moves in their favour |
| Futures Contract | agreement to buy something at a future date for a price agreed today ("futures price" aka "strike price") |
| Forward Contract | non-std futures contract |
| Spot Contract | bought now (2 days) |
| Credit Default Swap | insurance policy to transfer a loan that's defaulted to the insuring party |
| Chinese Walls | separation of departments that may have conflict of interest |
Ported from private Knowledge Base page 2014+