Ask The Experts: Careers

By taking advantage of the increasing reliance in the industry on IT as a process enabler, a creator of efficiencies and a tool for governance and compliance, IT managers are in a historically unparalleled position to advance their careers.Question: How can financial services IT managers take advantage of the current job market to advance their careers? The current phenomenon of banking institutions converting their back-office capabilities into for-profit business lines that consist of highly automated or technically enabled processes (e.g., fund accounting, trust, custody, prime brokerage), and strong market demand for these services is without a doubt contributing to hiring buoyancy. Jobs will continue to be created, but are not likely to be the same roles in the same locations that we historically have come to expect. And the path of progression and the desired competencies for managers have in many cases morphed or changed outright. In order to take advantage of current market conditions, IT managers in the financial services industry must continue to marry their technical proficiency with substantive business and process knowledge. As the industry's reliance on technology to simplify front-office tasks increases, the onus of sophistication is placed squarely on the product development cycles and process enablement that supports these tasks. IT managers who support businesses ranging from equities to fixed income -- not to mention increasingly complex derivatives or alternative investment products -- must understand the fundamental processes that their front-office counterparts utilize in a transparent manner. This trend of technical enablement is affording IT managers the opportunity to partner with the business in an unprecedented fashion. Managers who are able to successfully embrace this opportunity are gaining increasing responsibility in respect to stewarding the strategic mission of IT as a genuine value-add to the business. Their span of control is being increased to include functions outside of traditional IT, and the most successful are being given market-facing P&L roles.