How to Climb the Wall Street Corporate IT Ladder
"We have people in-house who support Apple products and Android people. We also look to leverage third parties and industry leaders," Kostulias relates. "If you partner with people who understand usability in the mobile space and pair them with strong product people, you build apps that are award-winning."
Capital markets firms looking to recruit technology talent are casting a wide net across the country. According to one consultant who works with large financial firms on the East Coast who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the West Coast is leading the way in terms of technology talent, particularly for those seeking expertise in big data. "People have been talking about big data on the West Coast for years," he says. "There are a lot of West Coast kids who work in their garages who have stronger big data skills than developers in the East."
Filling the IT Pipeline
In a bid to recruit the creme de la creme from either coast, firms are looking to appeal to Millennials who are just coming out of college and looking for fun jobs in which they can be intellectually challenged. TD Ameritrade is among the firms that have introduced open contests in order to generate excitement and drive innovative ideas that can be pushed into development, while also putting the firm in touch with top-notch developers it would like to work with in the future and even potentially recruit. The firm received hundreds of submitted ideas within days of launching earlier this year its "Build a killer mobile app" contest, which rewards the top-scoring suggestions with $2,500.
Last year, TradeKing also launched a contest, coined the TradeKing Campus Challenge, that aimed to have undergraduate business and tech students to use TradeKing's API in innovative ways. The online brokerage gave away $100,000 in cash prizes. "The way we procure talent has changed," the firm's Raju notes. "We still do ads, but we also focus on other channels, like crowdsourcing and social media initiatives. The cost and time of traditional recruiters is being challenged by social media and the crowd engagement aspect."
Meanwhile, experts underline that IT workers who want to succeed in today's economic climate must have more than just hard technical skills; it is also fundamental for them to acquire project and program management skills. "They must relentlessly seek to understand, and in collaboration with service providers and their front-office counterparts, execute against desired business outcomes," explains Russell Reynolds' Banerji. "The perception that listening and communicating effectively are somehow 'soft' and not hard skills is antiquated."
For those wondering how to improve their communication skills, most large companies offer plenty of training opportunities, points out Constance Melrose, managing director of eFinancialCareers North America. "If you analyze the professional progression and career trajectories of most current CIOs, you would find that it's the rare case of the best technician advancing up the leadership chain, but the majority having been capable technologists with superior communication skills and proven records of delivering meaningful business value."
Melanie Rodier has worked as a print and broadcast journalist for over 10 years, covering business and finance, general news, and film trade news. Prior to joining Wall Street & Technology in April 2007, Melanie lived in Paris, where she worked for the International Herald ... View Full Bio
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