Have been applying to some fintech companies but haven’t gotten the best results...does knowledge about finance or experience working in finance not matter in Fintech? Anyone in Fintech have a strong finance background as opposed to a engineering background?
I don’t mean to sound snappy but of course it matters! It’s called fintech for a reason! Good news is if you are good in product thinking, keen to learn about finance and good technically you’ll have a lot of fun running circles around everyone else
If you're a SWE intern/new grad (can't speak for experienced hire) at trading firms, many of them don't expect you do have any background in finance. You'll probably get an introduction to the field and pick up the specifics on the job, but generally you don't need a super deep understanding to build out whatever system you're working on.
Sofi has stopped caring about FANG due to some bad hires from them
It can help you get the interview, but that’s it. They’ll compare you with candidates on the technical and soft skills, by that point the financial edge doesn’t help you unless maybe that’s the only differentiation you have from others. They’re still going to pick who they like the best and can code the fastest. At least that’s how it has been with me.
Depends on the company. I actually expressed my concern about not having a finance background when interviewing, and they said they were more interested in growth potential and a willingness to learn. The vast majority of people I've met at work don't have a finance background. I think it's a plus, but not required unless you're doing business development, financial analytics, compliance, or some other position that heavily relies on a financial background.
There changing the world. They don’t want your cruddy domain knowledge. They be disrupting. They don’t need to know anything about the old ways. They gonna break everything and make it better.
This was once true at sofi but not so much with the new regime. The leadership is now all ex-bankers. Business side is goldman and bofa while engineering is chase. The biggest hurdle is that our recruiting department is horrendous. Dont be suprised if they miss phone screens or just completely forget about you.
fintech is literally just a tech company but applied to finance.. ergoooo, a tech background is pretty much always better
I don't think this is generally true. Many fintech companies are standard finance companies but without the decades of technical debt as more established companies.
name a few (please don't be a nunce and name actual quantitative finance firms instead of fintechs). literally all fintech is, is tech companies within the financial vertical. whether that's Bloomberg or Symphony or Marcus or Monzo or Revolut or Visa or MasterCard. None of them are "just" standard finance companies.
Domain experience is important in any role.
It's useful, notice how many product and eng people at Affirm, Sofi, etc come from banks. Having built a similar product and being familiar with regulations helps. That said, actual finance knowledge is much more useful if you're working in the finance Dept. There's not really a big benefit for an IC engineer to know a lot about finance (I'm talking about stuff like capital markets, not trading/investing).
I think it definitely matters. A lot of work might involve a certain financial sub-sector (Fixed Income, Trading, Bond’s etc.). So in case your resume has this listed as experience it’s definitely a plus given you have that domain knowledge rather than being just a tech Generalist.