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Comment by cdmcnamara | Hacker News Reader

I completed an internship at a large bank this summer in their Technology Analyst program. They basically house all the technical people into technology and it ranges from IT people to developers. Within the world of finance front office > all and are treated like it and treat others like crap. If you're really interested in working in finance as a developer I would look into either doing quant development or working at a respected proprietary trading firm like Susquehanna International Group, Optiver, GETCO, Jane Street, etc. These firms are definitely more quant and your development skills will be utilized here far more than at a large bank. Hope this helps.

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Curious, what was your role, if you don't mind saying? Were you a developer? Did you find the problems you were working on interesting? Would you go back?

I was a Summer Analyst (Intern) in the Technology Group. All the interns that were in this group with me were a majority of CS majors. Once you are in the Technology program you typically do a placement day in which you meet with managers from groups who are hiring and you pick your top 3 and they pick their top 3 and then HR does a "matching" process. I was assigned to a group where I primarily used Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services. In my opinion you didn't need to have a CS degree to do this. Some of the other interns were assigned to developer positions and seemed to like it. I turned down my offer to come back full time when I graduated and instead I will be working in the Bay Area at a startup as a Software Engineer, in my opinion this is a much better culture and environment and you are much more catered to.

The starting salaries in the Technology Analyst programs at large banks in NYC are ~65k.

That seems really, really low in comparison to Silicon Valley. The typical numbers I've heard thrown around are 90-100k for new CS grads, plus bonuses. Does "Technology Analyst" refer to 'IT guy' or 'developer'? Also, the salary seems really hard to live on in NYC(being from the area).

The scope of the Technology group ranges from typical IT stuff to development. In general there is another group closer associated to the Trading group along the lines of Quantitative Development. I believe all of these interns were Financial Engineering majors, none were CS majors (a lot more hardcore math involved). These salaries were closer to ~90-100k.

Front-office technology staffers at fixed income shops easily make 200K first year. The drudgery there comes from having to support trading software.

[can't reply directly to your latest comment, so doing it here]

'first year' == new grad? What is the income "ceiling" in this role? And why is supporting trading software bad? What does it entail?

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