Finance and Computer background

[dallas27]

I am 36, and have done well in the IT industry, currently building a startup focused on virtualization and ERP (sap).

I left school in the dotcom boom, but have circled back to finish it up. I likely won't finish for 4-6 years at the slow pace of one class per semester.

I'm deeply interested in finance and economics, and i think the majority of my undergrad course will be focused on these areas.

I expect to be FI or thereabouts when I eventually graduate, possibly making launching a new career at that point very probable. Trouble is, i dont know what niches are out there for a background of both IT and economics and finance.

Does anyone have ideas on possibilities, other than the obvious executive technical leadership
roles in big finance firms?

For what it's worth, the degree will be from Harvard's continuing education program, assuming I can continue to excel in the program.


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[Big_Hitter]

You could start a career a new career as an actuary, possibly one that specializes in financial analysis.


www.beanactuary.org

 

[Options]

Friend works in Treasury (finance) and has extensive background in IT as well. His IT skills have helped him transform the treaury function through extensive automation thereby reducing headcount. He's also saved his organization millions of $$ through expedited and more accurate financial transactions as a result of the automation. This has paid off handsomely for him monetarily/career-wise as he has the IT/financial skillset combination to do what many others who specialize only in Treasury do not.

 

[dallas27]

I dont know, actuary seems very much like a boring insurance number cruncher.

I think i'm more interested in building businesses and revenue. An advisor in a tech venture capital firm or an incubator may be more something along the lines of what i am thinking about.


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[dallas27]

Friend works in Treasury (finance) and has worked in IT as well. His IT skills have helped him transform the treaury function through extensive automation. This has paid off handsomely for him monetarily/career-wise as he has the skillsets to do what many others who specialize only in Treasury do not.

Thats the kind of dual skillset I am hoping to build. How did he find the position that straddled these areas?


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[Options]

I edited the above post to provide more details. He has always gone through headhunters. He has a stellar background because it includes a lot of global work. His current organization is global, and he's using automation to consolidate their previously decentralized treasury function. I don't believe he sought an IT/Treasury background on purpose--it just happened that way--but it has worked out well for him.

 

[Brat]

An Actuary's position isn't that of a boring number cruncher. Take a look at Milliman - United States and https://www.soa.org/member/


Another option would be to join a venture capital firm as an analyst. Each of these firms have distinct cultures so you really need to do your research.

 

[Big_Hitter]

I dont know, actuary seems very much like a boring insurance number cruncher.

not all actuaries work at insurance companies. many work for consulting firms, governmental entities, private corporations, colleges, banks and investment firms, labor unions and casinos

​

 

[eytonxav]

ERP consulting or sales

 

[dallas27]

ERP consulting or sales

That's what I do now!


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[eytonxav]

That's what I do now!


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Sorry, I didn't deduce that you were involved in consulting vs managing a mega-corps SAP environment. A nice niche that could go with IT (especially ERP) and finance might be forensic accounting. It pays pretty well and would make use of both those fields of knowledge. From my understanding, while a finance or economics background may work well to become an actuary, they are more typically math majors.

 

[sengsational]

I was doing IT technical SAP in manufacturing segment. When I found myself between jobs, the financial outfits wouldn't give me the time of day, despite having had finance related things on my resume and an MS in IE (which is like a technical MBA). So if I wanted to turn to finance from manufacturing, I wouldn't rely on a plan that required convincing a financial outfit that you can cross over.

 

[pb4uski]

Friend works in Treasury (finance) and has extensive background in IT as well. His IT skills have helped him transform the treaury function through extensive automation thereby reducing headcount. He's also saved his organization millions of $$ through expedited and more accurate financial transactions as a result of the automation. This has paid off handsomely for him monetarily/career-wise as he has the IT/financial skillset combination to do what many others who specialize only in Treasury do not.

At the mega I worked for we had loads of financial systems people principally working on implementing large scale financial systems (general ledger, payroll/HR, accounts payable, financial reporting, policy administration interfaces, actuarial system interfaces, etc.) that needed a mix of both finance/accounting and IT skills. We had many in financial reporting but few in treasury and I would have wished for more in treasury.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I am not sure if this is a good fit for what you want, but data scientist is a hot field right, requiring IT skills plus often knowledge of many overlapping fields:

https://hbr.org/2012/10/data-scientist-the-sexiest-job-of-the-21st-century/

 

[superdave]

I am a retired SAP Basis guy. You didn't say what modules you work with, but I would think that moving to functional BW ( data warehousing ) or functional FI/CO would get you closer to true finance work and get you closer to that action. Or you could just retire at 40