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I work in ads now too, I've thought about switching into finance for similar reasons. I just get along with people who are at work for the money hahaha, we all

I work in ads now too, I've thought about switching into finance for similar reasons. I just get along with people who are at work for the money hahaha, we all seem to get along and not get too stressed out. No one is bent out of shape because their passion idea is shot down, everything is nice and measured, bonuses are given out to people who come up with ways to make more revenue so (at least in my experience) there's not too many politics. Is there anything in particular you did to switch? Any specific tech skills you picked up? Or did you just apply and do normal interviews? I've mostly stayed in ads because I'm really good at JavaScript, and a huge chunk of ad optimization/tracking is on the frontend.

tomp 6y ago
No, I switched from backend programming in ads to backend programming in finance. I did a bit of JS, knew OCaml before, learned Python on the (ads) job, studied math and made programming languages as a hobby so I had a fairly good grasp of a wide range of fundamentals, which basically means I can do pretty much anything you throw at me, in interviews or at the job (anything ordinary - I don’t have any specialised skills like Google-scale big data or Visa-scale concurrency). I don’t think it would be hard to pick that if you’re really good at JavaScript, I guess curiosity was my strongest feature. The best thing for getting hired, unfortunately, was my degree (math+finance @ Oxford). Recruiters chased me! I don’t care about the degree, but they do - not necessarily people who interview you, but HR/recruitment department, they use your pedigree to float your CV to the top of the pile Also interviewing is huge hit and miss. I got rejected by like 5 companies in a row (often initial rounds), then got 2 offers at once (and one of the companies said I was one of the strongest candidates ever).
- jameshush 6y ago
  Thanks for the info! A common pattern I’ve seen for anyone who’s successful is failed interviews, it definitely is a crap shoot.

tomp 6y ago

No, I switched from backend programming in ads to backend programming in finance. I did a bit of JS, knew OCaml before, learned Python on the (ads) job, studied math and made programming languages as a hobby so I had a fairly good grasp of a wide range of fundamentals, which basically means I can do pretty much anything you throw at me, in interviews or at the job (anything ordinary - I don’t have any specialised skills like Google-scale big data or Visa-scale concurrency). I don’t think it would be hard to pick that if you’re really good at JavaScript, I guess curiosity was my strongest feature. The best thing for getting hired, unfortunately, was my degree (math+finance @ Oxford). Recruiters chased me! I don’t care about the degree, but they do - not necessarily people who interview you, but HR/recruitment department, they use your pedigree to float your CV to the top of the pile Also interviewing is huge hit and miss. I got rejected by like 5 companies in a row (often initial rounds), then got 2 offers at once (and one of the companies said I was one of the strongest candidates ever).

jameshush 6y ago
Thanks for the info! A common pattern I’ve seen for anyone who’s successful is failed interviews, it definitely is a crap shoot.