Another thing to keep in mind if you are working at, or considering working at, a bank or other financial institution is that the business basically hates their

Another thing to keep in mind if you are working at, or considering working at, a bank or other financial institution is that the business basically hates their IT department. Not personally of course, but rather it seems to be viewed as very peripheral to their core business (of what, scamming people out of their savings and cashing large checks from their respective national governments?). Even as algorithmic trading becomes more important to their bottom line, tech seems to be a pain in the ass and something to think about as little as possible for a lot of people. Software developers seem lower on the totem pole than most, as well, though that might be bias on my part. I have only worked for Japanese banks, so YMMV, but this seems to be the case even for the foreign guys pulled from overseas institutions, of whom we've got a lot.