Hi,can one start on a High Frequency Trading Operations Engineer role and later on move into Algo trading developer or quant dev position in a HF shop?I was told that the HF Trading Operations Engineer role that I interviewed for is a half trading operation and support role and half development role, can that be true?How is the compensation of Trading op engineer compare with HF developer?thanks for your help

Can anyone help me out here please?Would I be able to move from trading operation specialist/ support role into quant developer role in the same organisation or other firms later on.I have no prior finance experience, but I have 7+ years development experience.I appreciate your input

Hi,Your question doesn't make much sense I'm afraid - but that is purely due to you not have detailed knowledge of how finance insitutions work. Operations in banks tends to deal with the settlement and confirmation of trades. It sounds as though you would be doing something in that field from your post. A HF Development role could be anything. The key that most people are interested in is how close to the decision around making money are you. If you are trading that is Front Office and is paid much more than if you are settling trades whichis Back Office. If you are in IT then the salaries probably vary a little, but not as much as if you are sitting and building the trading algorithms.To really answer the question you need to provide a bit more information.

1. Why are they not giving you an HF role currently instead of an operations specialist role especially when you have development experience? 2.I don't know know how hard up you are for a job, but :If you are in need of work and this opportunity is there, take it and figure out how to politic your way through. If it means the difference between you eating and not eating, again take it be cool and figure out how to politic your way through.3.What you may notice is that there may be some openings later on, and that those opens are filled by external candidates more so than internal ones and this will piss you off if you see it enough."Someone" I know used to work as an operations specialist, was sold on the directors saying "give me two years and then you can go", all the while ... what this "someone" didn't realize is that you are "labeled" in the process regardless of qualification and it is to their advantage to hire someone outside of the organization from the same threshold ... not from a lower one yet an internal source. Participation on the inside does not hold validity like it did in the 80s. There are no more stories of the "mailroom worker" to CEO with hardwork and streetsmarts. Get this through your head that the strategy of advancement in the institution has changed and either you figure out your own way of getting it in or be cool with the position you have. 4.If you have other offers, you have to consider why they would put someone with your qualifications in an operations specialist role and obviously you are aware of the asymmetry or else you would be a happy being a "HFTOE" or "TOSSR" ... which BTW : 5.I noticed that you went from describing your situation from "High Frequency Trading Operations Engineer role" to "trading operation specialist/ support role" Look between the lines, if you are already depreciating the content of the role, then I can assure you that others will as well ...

thanks for your replies. You have PM.

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