I’ve noticed that on sites such as this and WSO, ppl tend to hate on folks who go into operations and other back office roles. Why is this? I know that the work is mundane and boring, but ppl in operations at places like Goldman don’t have to work as many hours as front office folks, make good money, and could potentially make 200K if they move up. This is a much better deal then the majority of ppl out there… Are ppl that make over 100K in ops a rarity? Please explain!
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It is not rarity but one has to be at least at a position of AVP/VP to make in 6 figures in BO which usually takes 5-7 years from entry level job. The job is tedious as people are doing the same kind of thing all their lives. In front office, people generate most of the money for the company and get bigger bonuses. Generally, FO people also have better salaries.
I think its because operational roles simply entail the accountability outlined in one’s role where as front office roles or actual money management roles or whatever are accountability-based plus performance. You can see the different in the kinds of people who migrate towards each kind of role. Operations people aren’t very good with people and typically want 9 to 5 gigs with limited emphasis on presentation, polish and grooming where as we have to look sharp and be sharp all the time otherwise our clients will leave us and our managers will fire us. So FO has TWO sets of expectations to manage while BO really has just the one level or tier of expectations. BO people also can give FO types advice and really don’t know what it’s like in the front lines. Now this is NOT necessarily my opinion but I think it answers the question. Willy
In addition to what others have mentioned, people online tend to “hate” on ops because there is little repercussion for being disrespectful online. In reality, a lot of these “haters” are actually unemployed and have huge chips on their shoulders. Sure, ops is not front office which is what most people on this forum want, and people say that it can be pretty mundane and perfunctory…but you can definitely make an OK living on an operations salary as you move up. Gotta catch a plane to NYC now. Catch you all later.
Hating on BO people is just stupid. If a company is relying on FO people to make great trades and make them rich, they end up sending their CEO to testify in front of Congress.
its the coolness factor. Nobody sounds cool saying they do a BO function, not compared to the FO guy who talks about wheelin and dealin. So while the role is necessary and all that, I think it is just an ego thing more than anything.