If you surf through the variety of IT job vacancies anywhere on the web, you’ll notice that there’s no shortage of proposals for developers in the financial software development sector. In fact, working in FinTech development is a great alternative for those who want to work in the financial sphere, but consider banks being too old-fashioned and traditional.
As of today, institutions dealing with finance place substantial demands on their IT systems. Stock traders, asset managers, and analysts heavily rely on technology as they help them analyze vast amounts of data in a rapid fashion. This way, they can make quicker decisions and support thousands of activities on a daily basis.
Thus, if you consider working in financial software development, you need to have an extensive knowledge background and enjoy solving technically challenging problems. The financial industry is a dynamic business often offering complex solutions, so it’s crucial to have a firm understanding of key technologies used in this sector as financial software companies need to react quickly and use new technologies to solve clients’ problems.
The career in financial software development is the right choice if…
- you accept working with demanding clients;
- you like to use modern technologies;
- you want to work in the financial sector, but not in a bank;
Employees working in this area typically come from mathematical, computing, engineering or scientific degree backgrounds. And it’s logical: in this branch of IT, developers can expect to be working with sophisticated mathematical models, massive data sets, distributed systems, highly parallel processing, high-speed systems and security considerations. They also develop interactive graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that help finance workers visualize big data sets and analyze complex trades in no time. As new financial products appear, these systems evolve as well, so you have to be flexible and continuously upgrade your skills. Anyway, it’s perfect if you have appropriate knowledge, but you have to strengthen it with flexibility, commitment and a thorough approach to work.
Secondly, financial software developers have to understand testing and development practices and have experience in object-oriented computer languages. Java skills are a great advantage, but many businesses in financial sector use C++ and C# languages. Relational database systems knowledge and web technologies such as JavaScript, Ajax, ASP.NET are also required in the majority of cases. Middleware (such as CORBA, TIBCO) will grow your chances as well. In third place, data sets in this sector are typically large, and your experience in mathematical modeling and distributed systems architecture will be a great plus to your CV. If to speak about additional skills, you should tolerate working in teams which include people with a non-technical background.
As a rule, the deadlines of the finance world are strict, and the requirements might change quickly, which, again, requires great flexibility. In addition, you have to be methodical as massive back-end systems may take years to master.
However, you won’t be left on your own. First-year employees receive training and get help from their more senior colleagues. It depends on you how far you can progress in your career development, and there are plenty of opportunities for rapid growth.
Let’s discuss three main points when you think of choosing a career.
Salary
Of course, it’s hard to operate with exact numbers, however, it is said that large financial companies pay less in comparison with big tech companies. What is a possible explanation might be? No-one knows precisely, but it seems that corporations value their financial employees more. However, this gap in salaries may be covered with bonuses if you make the difference for the company (and the company itself does well, evidently). Anyway, companies that regard software as a critical difference or strategic advantage will hold their staff in high regard, and well compensated.
Corporate Culture
While tech companies are known for establishing a culture that reflects their products, the majority of financial companies doesn’t pay much attention to their tech culture because it’s simply not their…style. But the scenery changes, as some financial companies are starting to develop their corporate culture with an eye to hire young professionals.
Work
No matter what kind of industry people work in, employees want to make a contribution to the company they work for and feel a connection with products they work on. In fact, I’ve spotted numerous positive reviews on being a software engineer in the financial industry. It gives you the opportunity to code and solve problems while being responsible for core business ideas and concepts.
John MacIlwaine, CTO at Lending Club, describes his personal experience: “Software engineers are building the technology that’s transforming the banking industry. It’s exciting because we’re pioneers in this space, and we are challenging traditional banks with our technology. We’re finding tech solutions for our borrowers and investors, meaning we have to process massive amounts of data, use data in new ways to protect our customers against fraud, and continuously deliver solutions that are flexible and scalable”.
