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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

#211

Post by joshuamorton »

jnordwick wrote: post #107
joshuamorton wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not quite sure what your point is. Mine was that their bonus being > salary implied a role/level at a bank that was higher than what they likely had at Google, so a commensurate salary increase would make sense. Could you explain what you're getting at?

Just that pay is high for basically a sr engineer at the right location (close to the money). The fact that bonus is 50+% of base is normal for those roles, more normal than faang comp. Compensation is just structured differently, so it isn't useful to use it as a measure of seniority between the two industries.

Oh I misunderstood the first time reading this comment. Bonus > salary pretty much never ever happens in Tech, until you're in an executive role.

It happens earlier in banks, but for most banks, it still happens at the level of Director (as opposed to Partner), not VP. I wasn't comparing comp structure to compare seniority. I was using comp structure to guess at seniority within the ladder of BB Banks and then comparing roles.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#212

Post by baybal2 »

tadfisher wrote: post #204
FireBeyond wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Simple, and the rest of the movers and shakers Yeah, a bank that announce that 1% of their customers had their account involuntarily closed with 30 days notice is sure to build trust in the new world order. https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/14/simple-account-closures/

Simple engineer here, not representing the company's views necessarily but relaying my own opinions. That situation was indeed a load of bullshit, but the other side of that coin is that we were doing something that has never had to happen in the history of modern banking, probably because it's insane. You see, normally when a bank is acquired by another bank, the acquirer gets the acquiree's FED terminals, ACH numbe…

Are fed terminals still are actual physical vt100 like contraptions? Or it is simply a metaphor for a kind of API access over the internet?

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#213

Post by jnordwick »

joshuamorton wrote: post #211
jnordwick wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just that pay is high for basically a sr engineer at the right location (close to the money). The fact that bonus is 50+% of base is normal for those roles, more normal than faang comp. Compensation is just structured differently, so it isn't useful to use it as a measure of seniority between the two industries.

Oh I misunderstood the first time reading this comment. Bonus > salary pretty much never ever happens in Tech, until you're in an executive role. It happens earlier in banks, but for most banks, it still happens at the level of Director (as opposed to Partner), not VP. I wasn't comparing comp structure to compare seniority. I was using comp structure to guess at seniority within the ladder of BB Banks and then compar…

It depends. In a back office role, you will have a more traditional salary plus 20% bonus. Infrastructure at a bank might be have a higher bonus component even at pres level.

On the trading desk, your bonus is often often open ended, or if you are doing strategy work then a percent of pnl.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#214

Post by heroprotagonist »

_raoulcousins wrote: post #193
organsnyder wrote: post #9

I 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…

My employer uses the line to justify paying developers below market wages.

You'd think this would pay more, to make up for lack of supportive infrastructure and career opportunity.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#215

Post by tadfisher »

baybal2 wrote: post #212
tadfisher wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple engineer here, not representing the company's views necessarily but relaying my own opinions. That situation was indeed a load of bullshit, but the other side of that coin is that we were doing something that has never had to happen in the history of modern banking, probably because it's insane. You see, normally when a bank is acquired by another bank, the acquirer gets the acquiree's FED terminals, ACH numbe…

Are fed terminals still are actual physical vt100 like contraptions? Or it is simply a metaphor for a kind of API access over the internet?

I believe the vt100 terminals have been phased out for FedACH/FedWire, which are the "modernized" APIs (read: the same weirdo fixed-width NACHA format but sent over HTTP/SFTP).

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#216

Post by eximius »

dgellow wrote: post #188
tryitnow wrote: post #44

This sounds like marketing baloney. I would bet most of that "engineering" headcount is actually just analytical headcount. not a bad thing, but it's not what we used to call engineering. This is part of an ongoing trend to describe everything as some form of "engineering." Honestly, if I'm going to Goldman for M&A - I want a human relationship. That relationship may be buttressed by research and analysis using "big…

To be honest Software Engineering looks like child play when compared to actual engineering work. Imagine the left-pad incident in a different engineering domain.

My imagination is failing me. What would the analog be?

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#217

Post by huac »

wan23 wrote: post #168
babaganoosh89 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably a VP of engineering

Probably not - you'd be surprised how low the the title of "Vice President" is in finance companies.

2-3 years as an analyst, 2-3 years as an associate, boom, you're a VP.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#218

Post by aianus »

lisper wrote: post #16
claytoncorreia wrote: post #8

It 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 ne…

There are many, many small banks in the US; you can just buy one that already has a license. Certainly not insurmountable.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#220

Post by lojack »

jeremyjh wrote: post #209
mywittyname wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Coca-Cola is not a marketing company, I never agreed with this mentality. Advertisement is Coke's cost center; it's not what they sell. They sell licensing rights to soft drinks: that's what makes them money. Advertisement is a cost of having a customer facing brand. Should P&G and Unilever be considered advertisement companies?

> Should P&G and Unilever be considered advertisement companies? Absolutely. The value of their businesses are entirely based on the brands that they have built, and those brands are built by advertising. Making food to stuff in the boxes is just a cost of building a successful brand.

But the brand itself doesn’t make them money. That doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable or even that it isn’t their biggest asset. What makes them money is people buying their product.
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