MCAD/MCTS Any Bank Workers - Advice Please

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Hi,

Hoping somebody out there can give some advice who currently works for or knows about programming for front office traders in a bank/hedge fund.

I am currently a trader for a prop house, but want to gain some certification and knowledge of programming as a back up and a view to move over to programming in the future.

I have market business knowledge but only have basic VB.net and some Excel VBA knowledge. What I am after is some advice on the best way to move forward. I noticed that c# and c++ are more regularly advetised by recruiters so was looking at MCAD c#? Advice?

Also from a banks point of view, I presume going down the applications route rather than web applications would be preferred?

Also any advice on how to complete MCAD, training providers, books etc much appreciated. Do I have enough knowledge to start MCAD, as I said i have basic VB knowledge and some Excel VBA by reading a few books, but that is it. Does anyone know a good route from beginner to MCAD without going through a+ and going up?

 

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Hi Lucky, and welcome to CF you can learn the MCAD through self study. In terms of books I'd advice you go for the MS press books and start looking at www.microsoft.com/learning as that's where you'd get precise information about this cert.

On the other hand considering you have knowledge on VB.net and MS Excel the C#, C++ would hopefully through determination not give you much of a hard time grasping the concepts. Anyway, go for it as with hard work and determination you can achieve a lot. Best wishes

 

I work for a company that produces web apps/tools for fund managers - so slightly related I guess.

I run the network/hardware side and know nothing about programming, but can tell you that most of our guys have SQL, .net and c# skills along with a bit of Delphi thrown in.

Best of luck

 

Thanks for the advice so far guys, much appreciated.

Anyone else with input - more than welcome.

Thanks again

 

Being a proficient programmer/developer is a full time job in itself, its not really a 'backup' option in my mind, you have to have a passion for it above all else.

I notice more of a trend of IT people moving into business rather than the other way round, so i'm surprised you'd want to move from trader to developer.

Banks tend to create in house client server systems with thick clients. Web client skills are therefore less in demand. They like to build performant high transaction processing systems, often with real time considerations. As such they like to see a good knowlegde of threading/concurrency, algorithms, math, ACID properties, security etc. Theres more of an emphasis on pure computer science fundamentals, jobs are better paid and harder to land than your average e-commerce position.

Many banks favour open source, C++ and Unix, however Excel and VB can be used a lot in the front office for tactical solutions. There was a move in some areas from C++ to Java and now from Java to C# .Net. In reality in many jobs you will be expected to know multiple languages and all of these languages still have their places.

You will also be expected to know the banking industry and associated terminology and middleware, standards etc, being a trader you will have a major advantage here.

If you are very good at programming, math and finance there are some very interesting options open to you.

As I'm sure you are aware the banking environment can be pretty stressful and so can be working on a development team, they don't get the big bucks for nothing ! Good luck !

By the way for the record I don't work for a bank, but I have done in the past, and no i'm not loaded