This isnt really true. Banks dont pay anywhere near tech salaries. Its all lip service.
The flow of good engineers is always banks -> tech companies and never tech companies -> banks.
It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
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Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#12I'm of the opinion that all banks should be technology companies, in that pretty much all of their operations rely on computing, so the better they are at developing and operating computer systems they better they'll be able to do business.
Unfortunately, many banks (at least in the UK market) seem to see IT as some kind of overhead, to be minimized in cost and/or outsourced (e.g. Lloyds outsourcing to IBM https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/06/lloyds_confirms_ibm...)
Of course there are ranges of new banks (the UK has a range of challenger banks most of whom take a more tech-focused approach) to challenge the "traditional" approach, and it'll be interesting to see how that shakes out...
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#13That being said I wouldn't say Goldman is your typical bank. Other banks are much slower at embracing automation and software development is more often than not considered as a non strategic commodity which budgets and headcount fluctuates up and down based on how much is available for discretionary spending. And the statements from its senior management are also too often aspirational and disconnected from the reali…
Is there a way to express/model technology so that it isn't considered this accessory but something that is core to their values/mission?
Have we not done a good job of proving that investment in technology is a force/profit multiplier?
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#14This isnt really true. Banks dont pay anywhere near tech salaries. Its all lip service. The flow of good engineers is always banks -> tech companies and never tech companies -> banks.
I think it depends on the company. From my personal experience it's something like
crappy software company So depending where you are in the software world, you can still be making a ton of coin at a bank.
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#15This isnt really true. Banks dont pay anywhere near tech salaries. Its all lip service. The flow of good engineers is always banks -> tech companies and never tech companies -> banks.
The salaries are good if you are banker.
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#16It seems like banks are realizing that they need to become tech companies faster than tech companies become banks.
No, it's that it is much easier for a bank to become a tech company than for a tech company to become a bank. The barriers to entry for becoming a tech company are merely technological. They are not trivial to surmount, but they are surmountable. By way of contrast, the barriers to entry to becoming a bank are regulatory, and nearly impossible to surmount, at least in the U.S. When was the last time you heard of a new bank being founded here?
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#17If by "tech companies" the OP means established technology companies like IBM, Cisco, and Oracle, as opposed to Silicon Valley upstarts, then I agree.
Otherwise, I disagree. Most banks are large, slow-moving, bureaucratic organizations saddled with decades-old technology.
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#18This isnt really true. Banks dont pay anywhere near tech salaries. Its all lip service. The flow of good engineers is always banks -> tech companies and never tech companies -> banks.
They don't pay anywhere near top tier tech salaries. They are competitive below that (the Oracle/Cisco/IBM level).
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#19That being said I wouldn't say Goldman is your typical bank. Other banks are much slower at embracing automation and software development is more often than not considered as a non strategic commodity which budgets and headcount fluctuates up and down based on how much is available for discretionary spending. And the statements from its senior management are also too often aspirational and disconnected from the reali…
Is there a way to express/model technology so that it isn't considered this accessory but something that is core to their values/mission? Have we not done a good job of proving that investment in technology is a force/profit multiplier?
The truth is tech is not a force multiplier in finance, except for HFT. A few firms do pay a ton for engineers (higher than google level comp), but there are probably less than 5000 of those engineers in NYC.
Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies
#20I work for a large healthcare system, and the "we're not a tech company" line is often heard. At many levels, I agree—we're in the business of delivering healthy outcomes to our communities, so we need to make sure that efforts across the enterprise support that—but it is often applied in ways that stifle us from delivering what we feel would be the most impactful and cost-effective solutions. I like to respond that…
I like to ask people what's the biggest advertising company in the world.
You'd be surprised how many people don't know :)