What would you choose if you were given the choice between a Consultant position (PA) or a place in the back office of an IB?I am tired of the project management type of jobs I am getting at PA and interested in getting into IB. I just interviewed for a quant position with this bank but was turned down due to my lack of experience in that area but I may still have a chance at a back office position (clearing, settlement, administration of corporate finance etc. etc.) since I have som qualifications and certifications in that area.Is back office a dead end or will there be room for career advancement there as well?Grateful for any input!

..knuff..

Back office is dead end if you want to be in front office. A lot of people earn a good living from working in the back office.

It wil pay more than consulting and offer a better quality of life in terms of lack of travel and less hours.However, whilst it IS possible to move into a front office role from there in time, it's certainly not the norm. I wouldn't have thought it would be more interesting than consulting though.

I have heard back office is painfully boring and maybe 1/10 will get into front office if that!!

The odds are FAR lower that 1/10 making it from back office to front; the only way to do it is to find a sponsor internally who will bring you across under their wing (and take the risk or glory depending on how you perform). Competition for front office roles is immense, and even more ferocious than MBB (and by ferocious I mean that - don't expect to get any friendly 'let's do some case studies together' type collegiality).

Would you really say that back office positions offer higher salaries than MC?I thought back office was basically about administration?

Operational Risk - is this in dept front, middle or back office?

Middle office

Can someone tell the definition of back, mid and front office works? Every time I read about it people mix and tell different things...What are your assignments in back, mid and front offices?Thanks.

Front Office - make bucksMiddle Office - stop front office taking too much of a gamble and bringing the bank down like nick leesonBack office - settles what the front office does

genuine question here - what skills do you need to join the Middle/Office? Are there any professional qualifications you need like ACCA or is it all based on knowledge of IB and use of Excel etc,

internal audit - middle?

Audit - I can read/hear that word without thinking of the word boredom! Are there any auditers out there that disagree?

So, where does working as analyst within M&A fit? And then we have those who are facing clients and doing presantations (non-sales).

M&A is front office, same as sales and trading and capital markets is . You won't be presenting to clients or probably even seeing any as an analyst in m&a though. Thats what VP's and MD's do for the most part.

consulting is far more interesting than a back office bank job. Very difficult for back office progression into front office ( sales, trading, client facing roles). The salaries may be about the same , however.