I’ll make this short and simple. I used to want to work in front-office and do all these amazing things and be a complete rock star. Work crazy hours yada yada… And then I woke one morning, realizing my current gig isn’t bad. I work in pricing/valuations at a large financial institution. Get in by 930-10. Take my one hour lunch. Do some query coding, analyze some data, talk to some auditors, accounting folks and traders, perform some control checks, verify some vendor prices for our portfolio, and then go home at 530 everyday.
It’s not front-office. It’s probably mid-office at best. But I’m happy with it. Not making killer money but it’s enough to live comfortably. I’m 29 too, if that matters any. I kind of feel bad for being content. I also have a huge commitment to basketball that takes up a big portion of my time when I’m off work.
Anyone in this boat too? If so, how do you cope with this feeling? I’ve been told they’re moving my team to the trading floor and while I’m suppose to be over-joyed and happy, but I’m not. I’m kind of annoyed because I like my little cubicle haha.
Sounds like you’ve got a good situation there. You’re in a job you enjoy, on decent money and nice hours. Allows for a healthy work/life balance. That’s not settling by any means. To be honest, there are many people out there struggling for work, in jobs they hate or working crappy hours. So enjoy what you’ve got. The grass is rarely greener on the other side.
Agreed with Carson. Plus if you do want to explore other opportunities you don’t have the added pressure of taking the first thing that comes along because you hate your current role so much you’ll do whatever just to get out. You can pass until you find the right fit.
I’m kind of in your position. Great work/life balance. Average money. Easy gig. I don’t plan on staying much longer but I’ve been on interviews where it’s been very clear to me that the grass is absolutely not greener. I definitely would like to make more money (derrr) and be more challenged at work but I’ll worry about that once I take Level 3 in June.
I agree with the above, enjoy the great hours, especially if you like the work. If you move up through the ranks you can make good money. Trying to get to front office from your role is very difficult, especially with the fines banks have taken from people who knew the trade-settlement cycle and taken advantage when they moved to a FO trading role.
I work investment performance and risk and have no intention of going to front office, despite getting my CFA. Not interested in working those hours. As long as i’m challenged intellectually and earn a decent amount i’m happy.
I am in a similar boat. I have a very comfortable lifestyle and very comfortable pay. For all the crap BO/MO type gigs get from FO it really is comparably pretty good work when you look at a lot of the jobs available in the industry. I am still pushing through the CFA and lookin to try and make a move mainly because the work doesn’t interest me and I would like to have work I am passionate about.
I know I see a lot of “young bloods” come in with crazy high hopes and dreams while I’m sitting here being content with my cubicle - so it’s good to have some confirmation that I’m not the only one haha. I’m actually not interested in FO anymore like some of us on here. Originally I was going to use the CFA as a tool to launch my career to the front, but now it’s becoming more of just a personal achievment.
Someone here recommend this to me: determine what lifestyle you want and then find the best job to meet that. If you’re happy with your lifestyle, you’re set. Who cares about the status of FO or whatever if you wouldn’t be any happier. Nothing wrong with just doing a job well and going home.
I don’t know I find it hard to believe people are satisfied or “happy” doing back office work when there are jobs in front office that pays much better with similar work-life balance.
There’s nothing wrong with BO or MO, plenty of people do them and see them as any other corporate job.
The reason why younguns are so gung ho about FO is obviously $, being the hot shot, prestige, getting recognized etc…
It’s no different from kids. Kids don’t dream about being a D3 athlete (vs D1 quarterback), scrubbing toilets on an aircraft carrier (vs fighter jet pilot), or being the engineer on earth that builds the toilet for the space station (vs being the astronaut in space )
^ I think taking a big picture view is also pretty key. Yeah, BO or MO isn’t the most glamorous finance job, but you’re still doing better than 95%+ of the population. Trade settlement or performance analysis is killing it versus ringing through toilet paper at WalMart (which is what millions do to pay their bills). Being a big shot PM sounds great on paper and it’s probably great for many, but it’s a bit ridiculous to think you can’t be happy with a job that’s still very elite compared to an overwelming majority of Americans or even more elite globally. All about perspective. Working for anyone else sucks though. Start working towards doing your own thing while you have the time and freedom to do so easily.
Probably just like to add here that apart from the bonuses (that are not always guaranteed), FO get paid 1.5 x BO/MO because they tend to work 1.5 x BO/MO hours unless you are sufficiently senior.
As a back office bitch myself, I found that contracting can be extremely lucrative and as lucrative as FO - albeit having less job stability.
This. I gunned for front office from a non-banking background, and I got it. I’m happy that I put in the effort to do so, but I can see the appeal of not caring and just being content with your current spot. That’s just not my personality, unfortunately.
I’m already thinking about my next move. Not sure when I’ll be content. I’d like to eventually start my own PE fund, so maybe then.
May be true about 1.5x at banks but at hedge funds it is not uncommon for a research analyst to have a bonus that is 10x that of similar exp and age operations guy. The CFO (the king of BO) has similar level of bonus as senior analysts or close to PMs. Just talking about our fund and my friends’ funds.
But yeah for the the most part MO/BO is not bad at all. Of course not all MO/BO are created equal.