𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐝 | 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 | Finance & Investment Banking Jobs

𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐝 | 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 | Finance & Investment Banking Jobs

Finance Aspirants are always perplexed with these terms & the type of work involved in the job roles

Broadly summarising, 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 (𝐌𝐎) guys do a basic level of screening, research work, they act as a filter.
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 (𝐅𝐎) guys take those inputs, analyse them, & then decide to go ahead with the deal or not.

𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐲 an Investment Bank is exploring a deal for #Fintech Stockbrokers in India

The job of the MO would be:

Get data regarding the population of India, Internet Penetration levels, analyse trends around it, build a basic list of competitors or active players in the market & share it with the front office team.

The FO takes those inputs and then TAKE A DECISION. They call the shots.

In FO, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞, you understand the business & economic view of doing the transaction/investment. You have a 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. They work on a deal for 3 to 6 months.

In MO, you don’t work on deals, you work on deliverables. They get work in bits & pieces. They might just do model updates or just competitor analysis or just rudimentary analysis overview. They are associated with 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 and might work for 5 to 7 days on an XYZ deal.

Understand, the cornerstone of backend or KPO jobs is 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 for UK/Europe.

As an Indian, I don’t even know who is the finance minister of the UK or what level S&P 500 is trading, despite that the asset manager is giving me some work? 𝐖𝐡𝐲? Because it doesn’t require niche skills. They are not seeing us as experts.

>>Please note, Both the jobs are EQUALLY important. 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 a team of Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar can’t win if they don’t have good quality defenders<<

How to understand whether it is a front end role? Simple...

𝐀𝐬𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐥 which type of clients or counterparties we work for? What is their geography?

If sitting in India you are doing working for 401k valuations or US GAAP or helping M&A happening in London or screening US-listed stocks then it's 99% a back-end role.

𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 get seduced by fancy words like Investment Banking Analyst or Valuations Analyst etc.

MO in India, strategy is to earn in $ and spend in ₹
A big4 India team got ₹15,000 as WFH allowance and at the same time backend team (India office of US) got $1000 (which is ₹75K)

It's easier to get into MO roles, relatively work-life balance is better and the FIXED COMPONENT of the pay is also at par at junior levels.

The typical path would be to break into a MO role, learn & get exposure for 2-4 years & then try to switch and move to FO role

Even a long-term career in backend roles is very rewarding. It's just the choice one has to make depending on his tastes & preferences.