Job Responsibilities
My major responsibility is to test TT's flagship product for
electronic futures trading. As part of a team, I test certain
components of the product before we send it out for testing to
our alpha candidate. We are charged with finding defects,
errors, and possible enhancements to the product.
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Job Requirements
Currently, I am attending school for my M.S. Finance degree.
Because I am a tester of the product, I am required to
understand the financial services industry. My coursework
addresses this need in an extremely professional and complete
manner. Our classes are taught by professors who all have
industry experience. One of my favorite professors was formerly
the Chief Risk Officer at ABN-AMRO and he teaches a sequence of
classes on risk management. Also, the grading and workload are
both fair. In addition to pursuing a degree in Finance, I also
had the advantage, when applying for my current position, of
having worked for a short time down on the floor of the Chicago
Board of Trade. This gave me some professional experience in
the financial service industry.
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Uppers
The best part about my job is that I get to blend both my undergraduate and
graduate degrees. I have an undergraduate degree in computer engineering, but
didn't want to work for an IBM or Intel. With my current job, I have to utilize
my computer engineering skills as well the knowledge I'm gaining from my Finance
degree coursework. Also, this blending of fields will allow for greater
opportunity in the future since I will be familiar with both the finance and
computer software industries.
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Downers
At times, the testing can get quite monotonous. And, much of
our work is dependent upon the releases of the products that the
developers put out; so, in a way, our work load is defined by
the productivity of other groups.
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Lifestyle
This position offers a pretty laid back lifestyle. It's not as high-pressured
as consulting or investment banking, but yet the work can get stressful around
product release deadlines. The dress code is rather lax and we're welcome to
come and go as we please as long as the work gets done. It's nice to be treated
like an adult and not have people hounding you if you took a two hour lunch one
day.
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Compensation
This position pays a base salary of around $40,000 per year. We
get year-end bonuses and performance bonuses at the discretion
of senior management. Also, we were given stock options, but
the number varies depending on what position you are hired for.
Finally, the company has wonderful benefits ranging from Paid
Time Off to health plans to a somewhat generous 401K matching
plan.
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Advice to Jobseekers
I would tell job seekers considering this field to try and get
some exchange experience before applying for a job as a tester
for a trading product. As a tester, you have to know how the
product will be used in the industry, because this is the most
common way to catch defects and errors. The job outlook for
this field is quite remarkable, however, because all the major
exchanges are pushing more and more for all trading to be done
electronically in order to save costs.
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