City of London IT?

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I'm originally from the UK but live in Toronto, Canada (been out here 10 years) and I'm 18 months into my IT career (job title is "SysAdmin" but I'm just a glorified IT tech in Canada). Used to work in financial media in London (equities, investment funds and hedge funds).

Would someone with a prior financial background (knowledge gained on the job, no certs such as IMC, CFA etc.) and current IT skill set (helpdesk with an interest in Cisco CCNA and cybersecurity) be of interest to recruiters for City of London IT positions?

 

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Just out of curiosity, how did you move to Canada?

 

Removed my original reply...I'm here to find out about contract IT in the City of London, not share my life story...

 

I did a few years supporting hedgies in London. If you have a lot of experience with Bloomberg, that's very helpful. A good understanding of their current regulatory burdens could work well for you, but it isn't that complicated for a frontline IT dude: just don't lose any IM chat, emails or phone calls.

If you decide to do desktop support as a contractor in that business, you will be well remunerated by the standards of that level of work, but you will almost certainly never progress. You will never even see a Cisco cli in action, nor will you ever manage a SQL instance etc. I'm serious, I briefly had a colleague who had 20 years IT experience on trade floors. My firm let him loose on servers, he did one of the dumbest **** ups I ever witnessed because servers in general were outside his 20 years of IT experience.

If you want to work with those guys but also learn and progress, you should probably get on the treadmill at one of the many MSPs that services that sector. I could name several, but I wouldn't dare endorse one. The atmosphere might be a bit grim, but 2 years in that environment should make eligible for a good in house job, and likely furnish you with the contacts to get one.

 

Hi Master,

I currently work in IT for the finance sector in "the City". The current gig is my first contract with a finance shop and I had no previous finance experience. I say that because I have been interviewed in the past for gigs at banks etc. but never got the gig because I lacked finance experience.

However, after contracting in London for 5 years, including this gig, I can tell you that the "bar" is extremely low. It seems to me that most places just want someone who a) turns up on time, b) goes home on time and c) owns a problem to the end. Up in the Midlands, things are quite competitive but here in London the landscape seems to be choc full of lazy b*stards and idiots. If you posses a degree of social intelligence, a feeling of non-entitlement and can see a problem through to the end then London is great place to contract.

You already have finance experience, so the rest is just down to day rates and if such rates work out for you.

In my opinion, London is crying out for decent helpdesk and desktop support folk and, as I said previously, in my experience the bar is extremely low. Don't worry about "certs" because no-one cares about that. All they care about is a) can you get in on time and b) can you do the job.

The question is just whether or not that the "rate" works for you when it comes to living expenses.

Good luck!


d_d

 

Yes you can "progress”...just need to make sure you’re in the right gigs which show progression on your CV.

 

No, this is the worst advice possible. Stay away from MSPs UNLESS you're the man that they love and need. If not, then you're just a "grunt". I've walked from 3 MSPs and I'm earning massively more than the mouth-heads who are still at such places and on £40k per annum. They knew it all...apart from how to earn more money.

And yes, I have progressed as a contractor in the last 5 years then I did in over 10 years as a permie. You can progress as a contractor.

 

I’ll keep away from politics in this thread chaps, lol

 

I agree. Managed Service Providers suck. I worked at one and hated it. Never going back!

 

Ok, I don’t want it to come across as myself saying that they’re all bad, but so far the ones I’ve given a go have consisted of very rude people who are usually a part of the click. Those who I know and do well tend to be lead consultants who generally have nothing to do with the office environment.

Many MSPs have a high staff turnover and you have to ask yourself why.

 

Yes of course mate, I didn't mean to tar them all with the same brush nor is @FlashDangerpants advice the "worst possible". I think the point I was trying to make is that you can get with a bad MSP, and they're plenty out there, and then be put off IT for life because you're led to believe that "this is what IT Support is about"...when in reality you ought to aim for getting in with an "internal" IT dept where things are little less "we've got to watch our bottom-line".

 

I was a service desk analyst at the MSP I worked for. The work was rewarding but it was management that ruined the experience with the blame culture and office politics and some people from the other technical teams were arrogant.

I heard the company outside the service desk was great and a lot of exposure to the latest tech but unfortunately progression was hard.

I moved on to an internal service desk and it was a lot better, before I left lol.

 

Contracted for 15+ years, worked for 5 banks, learnt loads. I do't like consultancies much either for the reasons mentioned.

I believe we will see another financial meltdown within 2 years and this time there could be bail ins, capital controls and mass redundancies.

 

Indeed and I don't think we're out of the last meltdown yet.

However, despite all the Brexit doom and gloom, the place I'm at are handing out 2nd & 3rd line support contracts like candy. As some of you guys know, I'm in the architecture side of the IT dept there (which is great!!!!) but for the biggest firm in their field in finance, Brexit certainly isn't an issue. I think folk need to bear in mind that all the scare stories like Jag/Land Rover are more to do with poor planning and marketing decisions, such as JLR concentrating on diesels and are now getting stung for it. It's just better on the PR front to blame Brexit, but investors and industry analysts know that it's naff all to do with Brexit...or should I say Breggzit like Tony Blair does? LOL...so much for keeping out of politics!!!!

 

I have zero economic concerns over brexit, whatever form it takes.

The entire planet is in the everything bubble, "the world’s debt burden to ballooned to almost $250 trillion since 2008", there is massive debt leverage and most of the banks are basically bankrupt.

Its now mathematically impossible for many nations to ever pay back their debt, so guess what that means...