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My friend told me about a government department that got an outside firm to run an online survey. The responses were delivered as one PDF per response. The depa

My friend told me about a government department that got an outside firm to run an online survey. The responses were delivered as one PDF per response. The department had a bunch of junior staff copy pasting these into Excel.

lordnacho 4y ago
I was a junior guy on a trading desk at a hedge fund once, and I got sent out to our fund administrator to help them produce a NAV for the fund. All our trading was done by computers, with everything written to a database. I show up at the fund admin's office, and what do I see? There's two young guys my age sitting there with the printed trades, thousands of them... typing them into a computer. One typing, one double checking. They had been at it for days when I arrived.
- skippyboxedhero 4y ago
  I worked in finance and have seen this in fund admin. It is a total backwater that they just drown in staff because grads are basically free (there is one place that I know that is actually in the Highlands, iirc they actually used to do something else but had a small fund admin biz...they grew like crazy because there are grads up there who have literally no choice...it could all be automated but they just keep hiring because they can get skilled labour at £20-25k/year). When you think that OEICs actually have to trade at that number too...scary. I have seen this in funds too. I knew one place that had school leavers booking their trades on internal system. They weren't high-frequency but I remember the guy showing me round, and he had three of these guys stacked up in this cupboard with Excel.
  - _dain_ 4y ago
    What sectors of the UK economy actually have really high performing people, with commensurately high pay? I'm looking for a software job again, got made redundant last week. Hedge funds and FAANG maybe the obvious examples, but I'd rather work in a place that actually makes things rather than shuffle money around or optimize ad clickthru rates. Where can I find those Type-I organizations that Dominic Cummings keeps banging on about?
    - skippyboxedhero 4y ago
      You know the answer. Banking and, to a far lesser extent, tech. They don't exist. Cummings doesn't live on this planet (he hasn't even had enough experience in govt to be called a bureaucrat, he has just had a host of jobs due to family connections...he is the thing he complains so much about).
    - lordnacho 4y ago
      The UK market is basically Dutch diseased. Work in finance or work for a US company if you want the big bucks. There are still firms that make things eg Aerospace, and there are orgs that do good work, but you won't get paid anything sensible. Don't forget you can work remote as well.

lordnacho 4y ago

I was a junior guy on a trading desk at a hedge fund once, and I got sent out to our fund administrator to help them produce a NAV for the fund. All our trading was done by computers, with everything written to a database. I show up at the fund admin's office, and what do I see? There's two young guys my age sitting there with the printed trades, thousands of them... typing them into a computer. One typing, one double checking. They had been at it for days when I arrived.

skippyboxedhero 4y ago
I worked in finance and have seen this in fund admin. It is a total backwater that they just drown in staff because grads are basically free (there is one place that I know that is actually in the Highlands, iirc they actually used to do something else but had a small fund admin biz...they grew like crazy because there are grads up there who have literally no choice...it could all be automated but they just keep hiring because they can get skilled labour at £20-25k/year). When you think that OEICs actually have to trade at that number too...scary. I have seen this in funds too. I knew one place that had school leavers booking their trades on internal system. They weren't high-frequency but I remember the guy showing me round, and he had three of these guys stacked up in this cupboard with Excel.
- _dain_ 4y ago
  What sectors of the UK economy actually have really high performing people, with commensurately high pay? I'm looking for a software job again, got made redundant last week. Hedge funds and FAANG maybe the obvious examples, but I'd rather work in a place that actually makes things rather than shuffle money around or optimize ad clickthru rates. Where can I find those Type-I organizations that Dominic Cummings keeps banging on about?
  - skippyboxedhero 4y ago
    You know the answer. Banking and, to a far lesser extent, tech. They don't exist. Cummings doesn't live on this planet (he hasn't even had enough experience in govt to be called a bureaucrat, he has just had a host of jobs due to family connections...he is the thing he complains so much about).
  - lordnacho 4y ago
    The UK market is basically Dutch diseased. Work in finance or work for a US company if you want the big bucks. There are still firms that make things eg Aerospace, and there are orgs that do good work, but you won't get paid anything sensible. Don't forget you can work remote as well.