The most-sought-after ner-- uh, technologists on Wall Street

Wall Street recruiters and hiring managers are seeking experts in the area of; you guessed it, C, C++, C#. Okay, many of you uninterested in what makes many of the top high frequency trading systems tick will be unaware but the “C” languages are what allow for their edge in terms of speed. With Wall Street paying top dollar for experienced technologists there is a good chance that broker-dealers, insurance companies, asset management firms and other for-profit companies in the financial services arena will either have to pay more for top talent or settle for less experienced candidates. According to the folks at job search site eFinancialCareers.com the C programming languages top the list of technical skills most desired in financial markets. The site focuses on matching appropriate candidates for hard-to-fill and often highly technical positions in the banking and finance sector. In fact they culled out and compiled a list of the most sought after types of technologists on Wall Street through analyzing a list of 529 current eFinancialCareers job postings. Among the technology jobs Wall Street companies are looking to recruit are programmers, database administrators and project managers in various operations including algorithmic trading, risk management and wealth management. Top Technology Skills in Demand on Wall Street as measured by eFinancialCareers job postings

1. C, C++, C#
2. Java/J2EE
3. Database Administrator
4. SQL
5. Unix
6. Linux
7. Risk Management
8. Project Manager
9. Perl
10. Oracle

I've been speaking with Constance Melrose, managing director for eFinancialCareers North America about their findings. She said that the most elite technologists on Wall Street are contending with massive real time data streams used in trading systems. The nano- to millisecond latencies involved can add up to fortunes made and lost in less time than the blink of an eye. “The C languages allow you to work with that because of the speed of execution and C is particularly good for working with large data stores and is flexible enough to allow you to do real time modeling,” said Ms. Melrose. She pointed out her favorite position description, for a High Frequency C++ Trading Systems Developer: “Many of these trades are races, and the fastest system wins. These computations are some of the most demanding performance challenges in any industry and we're willing to use any technologies that will give us an edge. If you have a background in performance tuning of distributed applications and want the chance to compete against some of the best systems in the world, we'd like to talk to you.” She also pointed out in our discussions that having raw skills wasn't enough; firms at the southern end of Manhattan seem most interested in not only skills but those with previous experience there. Thanks to this demand for experience there always seems to be a shortage of talent in New York. And that has driven salaries in the Big Apple 20% higher for technology professionals working in finance than the technology population as a whole. That holds true despite stiff competition from other sectors, some of them sexier to C programmers, like the gaming industry. For context I went back to the 2009-2010 Annual Salary Survey from Dice Holdings Inc. (they own eFinancial Careers) published in January and found that technology workers in finance and banking are the best paid in the New York region, averaging $106,344, followed by those toiling for utilities ($98,452), internet services ($91,185) and entertainment or media companies ($89,473). In the same survey, New York-based technology consultants reported average income 20% higher ($104,302) than the average salary. For those working on a contract basis, the high was $240 per hour while on average the base rate reported was $63 per hour. The survey was administered online with 16,908 registered Dice job seekers and visitors responding between August 24 and November 12, 2009. That included 1,476 New York-based technology professionals. Getting back to the latest eFinancialCareers postings, Ms. Melrose said that the number of jobs falling under the general category of information technology was up 24% year over year for July. Those classified in the compliance and legal sector for financial services though had increased by 71% year over year for July. “Compliance is always a headache for the financial sector; they are also looking at cross-training folks in these jobs because there is always a shortage of people with this expertise,” she said. She added that the likely wave of technology initiatives that will follow the financial reform legislation and changes to regulations would probably put added stress on technology recruitment in that area as well. As evidence she pointed out that “risk management” had been mentioned often enough in technology job postings, that it had moved from being off the list to number seven. “More attention is already being placed on stress-testing and there is greater focus on measuring long-tailed risk especially since that is becoming more of a factor in compensation — more confidence is being demanded in predictions over time,” Ms. Melrose said. For additional information visit eFinancialCareers online. To get a gander at typical job descriptions for each of the top 10 types of positions check out these provided by the site: C, C++, C#, High Frequency C++ Trading Systems Developer Java/J2EE, Front office development lead Database Administrator, Database Administrator SQL, Performance Reporting Analyst/Developer - VBA/SQL/UNIX Unix, Senior Unix Administrator Linux, High Frequency Linux Systems Engineer Risk Management, Quantitative Developer Project Management, Project Management Lead Perl, C#/WPF/Silverlight Developer - Mid Level Oracle, Senior Oracle, DBA Related stories: TechBits: Unhappy IT workers… Indie B-Ds, asset managers look to Wall Street for techies Tech-savvy indies a draw for some advisers