Ask HN: How to gain experience in banking industry for software development?

1 points by mtoohig 4 years ago | 1 comment

I was recently told I could not fill a position at a bank as a software developer since I do not have experience in the banking industry. I've worked for streaming services and have plenty experience making web apps and enough in DevOps which are the two areas the CTO spoke to me about.

The CTO of said bank (mind you this is a small bank in a small country) approached me to take this position but it was the owner that made the above decision not to take me.

Apparently the CTO is pushing for me internally still but what I can do to get my foot in the door with banking experience? Is there some standard background knowledge unique to banking software in particular I could study? I may be wrong but I assume writing software would be the same at a bank except don't "move fast and break things" and an emphasis on protecting private information and security. Other than that the knowledge to take requirements and translate them into features/projects would be the core of any software position.

I'd appreciate to learn where my assumptions are wrong and then what I could learn about software development for banks, or perhaps just info about the industry in general if you have any interesting material you recommend I read.

Thank you.

Daedren 4 years ago |

The CTO already said you're ok, you have everything you need. The owner (generally) wouldn't have the technical know-how of what you actually require.

I got to work in a bank and I can say it's nothing special. There's a much increased load of compliance-related work due to how regulated the field is, but otherwise that's about it.

There's -a lot- of business knowledge to know about, and you'd make more use/need of it in a smaller bank yes, but it's not what you'd really ask of the software developer.