I’m writing this because my career seems to have stalled and I need advice.
I work in a quant development team at a major bank (building the computer programmes that bring quantitative models to life). My understanding is that demand for quants in banks and hedge funds has picked up again – people are talking about a ‘hiring frenzy.’ Personally, I want to use this frenzy to further my career. I’ve been in quant development for five years and am currently a director: I want to make MD.
How realistic is this?
Despite my years of experience, I have:
- Never been promoted.
- Never received any kind of annual salary or bonus increase unless I’ve swapped jobs.
All my career growth has come from changing firms and changing jobs. Does this make me a failure? I don’t think so – no one I’ve worked with in a quant or IT role has ever applied for and received an internal job transfer. Quant technology roles seem to be a dead end.
So, what should I do? Should I wait around to get promoted and help to fill a departing colleague’s shoes? Should I asked for a base salary increase? – Will that single me out at as overly-demanding?
And finally, is it worth me applying to rival firms in the hope that I can get promoted to MD by switching roles (again)? Does this really happen? I don’t want to move to a rival firm as a director and would probably turn down another director-level role elsewhere.
Any advice would be much appreciated. Please use the comments box below.
*Andrew Deft is a pseudonym