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Am I crazy to switch from Software to Finance?

5 points by tallheart ↗ HN
I'm in NYC and I do design, dev, and marketing for a software company. I have non-liquid options and a decent salary (call it $140K).

In NYC suburbs, with my current family situation (I'll spare details) I need more monthly income.

Assuming I want to max out short-term cash, should I:

* Shop for another full-time software job (how much higher can I get?!)

* Start doing freelance software dev/design consulting

* Try to get a banking job

(A few of the guys I ride the train with are making 3-4X my comp in hedge funds and i-banking, which is why that's on the list.)

5 comments

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CyberFonic
Depends upon your priorities. You don't explain why you need to max out short-term cash. Generally doing anything just because it makes more money is a Faustian deal of the first order. Of course, there are some people who are in banking because they truly believe in some aspect of it. Then there are others who get trapped by the lavish lifestyle and find it increasingly hard to leave.

Have you considered taking a careful look around you and find a hair on fire problem that you could solve and enjoy doing so? Taking a longer term view, where you balance all aspects of your life tends to be a more satisfying approach.

laughfactory
I've worked in banking and finance since college (three years now) and my advice: avoid banking/finance like the plague. Sure there's potentially more money to be made in banking/finance, but it comes at a cost. There's "no free lunch" as they say. I'm desperately looking to do the opposite: move from finance/banking into software development (specifically mobile and web). And in doing so I want to avoid working for any bank/finance company ever again. Just my two cents.
MalcolmDiggs
NYC is a nice market for freelancing. Compounding some extra income on top of your current salary (in a field you already specialize in) seems like the path of least resistance.

If you've got the background, programming black boxes for hedge funds is not a bad gig. Also, Bloomberg is recruiting devs in your area hard right now, the last I heard they were offering about $220 base for guys to build their new HFT-related products. (That's word of mouth from a recruiter). You can see lots of their open positions here: http://careers.stackoverflow.com/company/bloomberg

Genius.com claims to be the best paying startup in your area. They're actively recruiting for full stack guys right now and pay upwards of $230k https://angel.co/genius/jobs/36568-full-stack-developer

But also, couldn't you dip your toe into finance little by little? Go out and get your Series 7 done, etc, and then figure out if you actually want to do it.

marketmaker
I don't disagree with the tone of your post at all, but I had one comment:

I'm not sure the series 7 is a good representation of the industry. Unless muni bonds excite you, that exam is questionable in value except in the areas where they stress suitability of investments for clients. (I like that the exam focuses on clients a lot; I think it actually helps with developing a customer-centric mindset.)