eFinancialCareers

Demand for techies is high, despite the trend to offshore some roles.

Banks use computers for just about everything – from communicating with staff and storing information on clients to running complex computer models to price financial products. They are known for having some of the world’s cutting-edge computer systems, especially for the trading floor, where financial products and commodities are bought and sold electronically.

Trends

Investment banks’ IT spending is big, but erratic. Banks spend millions on IT when they have to, but since IT is a cost, any money spent on new IT systems will, in the short term at least, have la negative effect on a bank’s balance sheet. The big Australian retail banks are all planning massive IT upgrades over the next few years, NAB having announced it plans to spend $1bn and CBA about $600m on next-generation IT systems. Westpac and ANZ also plan to do the same, but are waiting to see the outcome of merger talks.

It's good news for Australian graduates – while IT spending is sluggish in Europe, it’s a growth area in Australia. Australia tends to be an early adopter of technology, and banks are looking at smart ways to be more efficient, and to drive productivity.

So despite the trend towards outsourcing banking IT jobs to low cost countries like China and India, the overall number of financial IT jobs in Australia is growing. It’s the commoditised, back-office roles that have been moved offshore, while more money is being poured into client-interfacing, business-interfacing technology and specialist, mission-critical technology, such as enhanced security systems. If you have IT and security skills, you’ll be in hot demand.

Roles and career paths

Jobs in IT departments of investment banks tend to fall into one of four categories: development, business analysis, project management and technical support. If you become an IT developer, you could be responsible for writing the programs that help the bank do everything from pricing and booking trades to calculating risk. The programming languages used by banks are usually C++, Java and Microsoft’s .NET.

While developers write the programs, business analysts look at the way technology is used and analyse opportunities for making it work better. Business analysts help identify the potential for making changes to a bank’s technology systems.

Once big changes are under way, the responsibility for managing them often passes to other staff: project managers, who plan, structure and fulfill IT projects. If IT development work is outsourced to third-party providers, project managers liaise with providers to ensure the work is completed correctly and within the right time frame.

Technical support staff, meanwhile, require good technical skills and the thickest skin to handle not only the technology problems, but the temper tantrums of irate traders. It’s a role that carries a lot of responsibility – a computer problem on a trading floor lasting a few minutes could cost millions of dollars. It’s up to technical support staff to identify and resolve the glitch as soon as possible. IT staff in investment banks also usually specialise in the IT requirements of a particular business area.

While many IT staff work on the trading floor, others are based in private banking, fund management and operations, or deal with core infrastructure requirements.

The most significant career path and highest paid roles are those in which people have developed an understanding of the interface between IT and financial business – beyond being just a technician. These roles involve examining the functionality of what people are doing, developing or serving architectures to help traders or insurers or risk analysts to make better decisions, more quickly.

IT business developers and project managers are also in extremely high demand. The major regions in Australia with higher than average IT salary increases and demand have been Western Australia and Queensland due to the resources boom, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), as the government invests more in infrastructure. But as the retail majors head into huge upgrades, Sydney with the Commonwealth Bank, and Melbourne with NAB, will be drained of IT professionals.

A basic understanding of programming skills is required for most IT financial roles, and graduates of combined business and IT degrees, who have a broad base of both IT and commercial knowledge, are most attractive to employers. There are also many graduate programmes offered in-house, particularly at larger institutions, where it’s possible to learn both a broad range of skills and to specialise in base knowledge. Robert Half’s Nicole Gorton says banks regularly transfer people, especially analysts, internally into IT roles for short-term projects. “It gives them terrific exposure to a sector that will always be in demand, and will always give them an edge, including when it comes to salaries.”

The banking and finance sector is the primary graduate opportunity for those wanting a career in IT, says Cyrus D’Cruz, executive general manager for IT practice for Hudson Australia: “Banks in particular, and certainly many of the larger financial institutions, insurers, retail banks, invest quite heavily in their recruitment programmes for graduates and have very highly developed and industry recognised programmes,” he says.

Key players

In 2008, the retail banks are all planning and instituting big IT works, but Macquarie Bank has also been active in the area and although activity at global banks has eased, having the most efficient IT system is vital for all banks, always.

In addition to banks, software companies are also major hirers of IT staff for banks. The main ones, says Will Wilhelms at recruiter Egon Zehnder, are IBM, Accenture, EDS, CSC and the big accountancy firms, Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Pay

At the graduate level, salaries begin at around AU$50k, but at more senior levels, the industry is beginning to see a return to the kind of money paid in IT in the early years. Particularly in key development roles, bonus structures and performance-related pay are on the rise.

A business analyst with a few years' experience will earn AU$80k-$85k, but that can easily jump to AU$115k, says Duncan Amos at recruiter Bluefin Resources. Application development roles range from AU$85k-$120k, depending on experience, technology skill stack and employer. Software architects earn between AU$120k and $160k, according to Amos, and project managers earn AU$120k-$160/70k, with 10-25% bonuses. IT programme directors command significant salaries, and in the consulting space salaries are paid at a premium.

Sam Vargas at recruiter Robert Walters says there’s definitely a premium for IT project managers in the middle range, compared with their general business colleagues. The average salary for an executive IT role is around AU$140k.

Skills

• Kellie Stirling, head of recruitment and careers strategy at ANZ, says the pipeline of IT graduates has thinned since the dot.com bust, creating an unmet demand. “It forced IT departments to think laterally about what they wanted and enabled them to source from other fields candidates who had the capacity for the job. What we look for is lateral thinkers, problem solvers, people who have interests outside work, who are good communicators and team players.”

• Nicole Gorton, from Robert Half International, says any banking analyst who gets the chance to move onto an IT project should jump at the chance. “They are on a steep learning curve, but the skills they develop will benefit them throughout their career. The more exposure you have to IT, the more you’ll benefit financially and in the range of positions you can apply for. What banks look for is people who can transfer their business analytical skills onto systems analysis, so they want people who are intellectually and professionally flexible.”

• Sam Vargas at recruiter Robert Walters: “Banks understand that IT departments must be integrated into the whole organisation and IT staff need familiarity with the broader bank, how IT fits into the budget and how compromises are necessary and must constantly be assessed. To do this, IT staff have to be very good communicators, especially business analysts and project managers. They have to be technologically savvy but, even more, need to see both sides of the coin, understanding that technology decisions must have a business justification and return on investment.”

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