Me? I am just a harmless programmer
I have been working in the financial services industry for the last four and a half years. Apart from working as an intern in an IT company way back in the prehistory of the dot com boom, the financial services industry is the only industry that I know. It was the only industry that would give me a work permit when I graduated from University. It was the only industry that would pay me enough money to live in London and to have a good time. The monthly paycheck kept me happy. Successfully subverted any plans of going back to academia, maybe becoming a teacher, or an awesome space-opera author.
For four years, when people asked me what I did for a living, I replied, oh I work for an investment bank. Saying that I was a computer programmer, who really had an extremely vague idea of what an investment bank did was conforming to too many cliches. After all, I am an Indian, with an engineering and computer science degree, who wears glasses, is not particularly athletic.. admitting my conformity was difficult. So "I worked in the financial service industry". When people pushed me, I said, "Oh, I work in technology, but I am not really that technical", making dismissive funny hand wavy signs.
In 2004, working in an investment bank was cool. An investment banker made and flaunted his cash, got into the swankiest night clubs, and had tales of apres-ski debauchery. Working in IT wasn't that cool. You couldn't join the chorus of complains come bonus time when there weren't six figures in that piece of paper that your manager handed you. You were supposed to be happy with your lot, with the little something that might go towards paying off some that credit bill that fueled last winter's orgy of conspicuous consumption.
I was just a little bit envious. Just a little. I thought about becomine a trader, forgoing technology completely and become one of the big boys in the room. But the order loving, obsessive compulsive geek inside me, beaten and bullied he might have been, was obstinate. Just give it a couple more years, build your skills portfolio (remember, you come from a family of engineers).
Things started changing last year. As the summer of 2007 ended, the phrase "credit crunch" entered the lexicon of our times. Suddenly I found myself in meetings (or "town halls") with senior management as they made soothing noises about how mistakes were made, but really things aren't all that bad. People, at first, were curious. I was asked about what it all meant, and after lots of time spent on the bloomberg (and wikipedia) website, I could give an explanation that was somewhat coherent.
Hey, I actually knew something about the industry I work in!
At some point this year, curiosity became something a bit less benign. The newspaper headlines became less about what was going wrong, and more about who was responsible. Swarthy, obese caricatures of bankers became the norm in the editorial cartoons in the mainstream newspapers. There were always people who seem to view people working in the financial services industry as the lowest kind of scum. We used laugh, and call them "goddamn Hippies" with our best Eric Cartman impression.
Probably early summer 2008, the tide turned. Admitting that you work in financial services became a little precarious. In the best case scenario, you would be asked just how people not paying their mortgages in North Dakota could have an impact on the economy of Iceland. Give your answer, prepare for some head shaking, and hope they move on. In the worst case, you would need to be prepared for a breathless tirade on greed, and stupidity, and how the bankers were responsible for the wild fires in California and for the death of the polar bears.
These days, the financial services industry is viewed as some sort of toxic cess pit. The number of times I have read 'masters of the Universe', 'bonfire of the vanities', and 'greed is good' in the editorial pages of the newspapers defies belief. You would have thought the writers might have got over cultural references from the 1980s. We have moved swiftly on from curiosity, to criticism to condemnation to schadenfraude and now to ritual humiliation.
Bankers are the villians in the christmas pantomime shows. There is a credit crunch musical in the works (yes there really is). Give hollywood six months, and you will start seeing life affirming movies of reformed ex-investment bankers hitting the screen (or unrepentant investment bankers hitting the street, head first, from a great height, messily).
Now if somebody asks me what I do for a living, I say 'I work in technology'. When pushed for more information, I say, ok I work in a large Japanese commerical bank (emphasis on Japanese), and am nothing more than a glorified computer operator / progammer. I have nothing to do with this credit crunch, and to be honest I just like writing elegant code.
For four years, when people asked me what I did for a living, I replied, oh I work for an investment bank. Saying that I was a computer programmer, who really had an extremely vague idea of what an investment bank did was conforming to too many cliches. After all, I am an Indian, with an engineering and computer science degree, who wears glasses, is not particularly athletic.. admitting my conformity was difficult. So "I worked in the financial service industry". When people pushed me, I said, "Oh, I work in technology, but I am not really that technical", making dismissive funny hand wavy signs.
In 2004, working in an investment bank was cool. An investment banker made and flaunted his cash, got into the swankiest night clubs, and had tales of apres-ski debauchery. Working in IT wasn't that cool. You couldn't join the chorus of complains come bonus time when there weren't six figures in that piece of paper that your manager handed you. You were supposed to be happy with your lot, with the little something that might go towards paying off some that credit bill that fueled last winter's orgy of conspicuous consumption.
I was just a little bit envious. Just a little. I thought about becomine a trader, forgoing technology completely and become one of the big boys in the room. But the order loving, obsessive compulsive geek inside me, beaten and bullied he might have been, was obstinate. Just give it a couple more years, build your skills portfolio (remember, you come from a family of engineers).
Things started changing last year. As the summer of 2007 ended, the phrase "credit crunch" entered the lexicon of our times. Suddenly I found myself in meetings (or "town halls") with senior management as they made soothing noises about how mistakes were made, but really things aren't all that bad. People, at first, were curious. I was asked about what it all meant, and after lots of time spent on the bloomberg (and wikipedia) website, I could give an explanation that was somewhat coherent.
Hey, I actually knew something about the industry I work in!
At some point this year, curiosity became something a bit less benign. The newspaper headlines became less about what was going wrong, and more about who was responsible. Swarthy, obese caricatures of bankers became the norm in the editorial cartoons in the mainstream newspapers. There were always people who seem to view people working in the financial services industry as the lowest kind of scum. We used laugh, and call them "goddamn Hippies" with our best Eric Cartman impression.
Probably early summer 2008, the tide turned. Admitting that you work in financial services became a little precarious. In the best case scenario, you would be asked just how people not paying their mortgages in North Dakota could have an impact on the economy of Iceland. Give your answer, prepare for some head shaking, and hope they move on. In the worst case, you would need to be prepared for a breathless tirade on greed, and stupidity, and how the bankers were responsible for the wild fires in California and for the death of the polar bears.
These days, the financial services industry is viewed as some sort of toxic cess pit. The number of times I have read 'masters of the Universe', 'bonfire of the vanities', and 'greed is good' in the editorial pages of the newspapers defies belief. You would have thought the writers might have got over cultural references from the 1980s. We have moved swiftly on from curiosity, to criticism to condemnation to schadenfraude and now to ritual humiliation.
Bankers are the villians in the christmas pantomime shows. There is a credit crunch musical in the works (yes there really is). Give hollywood six months, and you will start seeing life affirming movies of reformed ex-investment bankers hitting the screen (or unrepentant investment bankers hitting the street, head first, from a great height, messily).
Now if somebody asks me what I do for a living, I say 'I work in technology'. When pushed for more information, I say, ok I work in a large Japanese commerical bank (emphasis on Japanese), and am nothing more than a glorified computer operator / progammer. I have nothing to do with this credit crunch, and to be honest I just like writing elegant code.
