
Ask HN: How to break into finance from being a web dev - reviewmycodee
I am a web developer (~2 years out of school) and I work at a fairly large company. I&#x27;ve also had a passion for finance and in my free time, I write trading algorithms.<p>Although, I think I want to move into finance (HFT&#x2F;hedge fund). Is there a path I can take or steps to take to get there?
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swtf
I just moved back here from NYC. I was working in automated trading. You want
to apply to 2sigma and bridgewater. They value smarts over experience. You can
also work for Chase, Citi Group, Citi Bank, CapitalOne.

If you wanna become a quant, or do anything related to actual decision making
of when a purchase order is processed or when it's dropped. You'll need at
least a masters in Mathematics or Engineering, and be fluent in C/C++ for
finance.

I will tell you right away. As a developer even if you knew your stuff you'll
always be a developer. When shit hits the fan you'll be the first out the
door.

Lastly, you need to learn the language. You'll need to know all these terms
that many will refuse to explain to you because that's what earns them value.
Our director of engineering used to always say the only reason he still has
the job is because he understand the language.

\-- I worked at Citi Group.

Overall I hated nyc. I lived my whole life in California. Didn't have to wear
dress cloths to work, didn't have to be at work at 7:30-8 am sharp, but the
money was great.

I hope this helps..

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jetti
I would add that the only other real market related finance jobs (that I know
of) are in Chicago. There is a large commodity and futures market there as
well as the Chicago Board of Trade. I worked at a clearing company there and
it was really interesting and enjoyable. There are a bunch of prop trading
firms here as well as execution services (which are interesting in their own
right) and clearing firms.

Edit: I would note that there is a lot of C# work in the financial markets in
Chicago. There is the C++ high performance stuff but there is also high
performance C# as well as just plain ol' "normal" C# work.

~~~
ccajas
This is something that also interests me, as a web developer with a mostly
LAMP background. I live in Chicago and getting tired of just doing web dev for
small business clients. I have hobby experience with C# (3+ years, built
several native apps).

I'd like to know how to break into the trading industry in Chicago with this
background. So far I've been rejected to every C# job I've applied to and I
cannot try C# at my job as I'm currently unemployed.

I'm not looking to do high frequency trading algorithms (seems well beyond my
scope), but I'd be open to writing finance-related tools that aren't
performance intensive, if that makes any sense.

~~~
jetti
What level are you applying for? What types of firms? Perhaps you should deal
with a recruiter as that is how I was able to get into the industry.

------
edimaudo
Find someone in the finance industry. Show of your trading algorithms in
action.

