Financial Services London - Are all us BA_PMs obsolete? What next?

[GPC2013]

Curious if many BA_PMs out there and what you're considering next / how you feel about your role type?

Seems that BA/PM/Programme Manager roles have completely dried up on the contract side, and on the perm side they only exist in domains (e.g. if you're a BA_PM who's tried for a broad experience / to learn new areas, you're of less value than a BA_PM who has always stuck to a specific asset class Equities, or regulatory area MiFID etc.)

If you're a BA_PM/Programme Manager, in Financial Services Technology/Change:
-How are you finding the current market?
-What are you planning for your next role?
-Are you re-training/upskilling, if so, as what!?
-If you're a Ltd. company contractor, are you converting to Perm while you're waiting to see how PAYE contract market rates pan out, or accepting PAYE contracts to tide you over while you look for a perm role? (those of us lucky enough to have jobs)

PLEASE:
-No need to talk about perm benefits vs contractor and vice versa, it's well covered on here. I'm more interested in what people are actually doing, have decided to do.
-Already preempting the: "You should have foreseen this and trained as a one-person python specialist who'll have big data analytics and GPUs running on their desktop by lunchtime on their first day while simultaneously running a workshop on Agile/DevOps and installing their desk on an external cloud" responses.

[AddingValue]

-How are you finding the current market?
-What are you planning for your next role?
-Are you re-training/upskilling, if so, as what!?

Finding it dead. My background was very broad/generalist and couldnt find anything even remotely related to FS. Now in telecom and doing some small FS based certs on the side but doesnt seem to be helping.

[LondonManc]

PMs should potentially have been getting up to speed to become Scrum Masters or Scrum Coaches.

As a BA, you need to potentially consider this too, with possibly being an SME or product owner; BAs are still needed - e.g. MIFID, Basel III, IFRS17 specialism would all be useful for contractors, but you have a duty more than ever to get ahead of the game in the way that we techies are getting up to speed on things like BI in the cloud, migration to it, etc.

[Hertsseasider]

I'm a BA/PM and generally find that the skills are very much transferable across all sectors. You are gathering requirements, documenting them, sharing them with developers, testing and training users. I've worked in Transport, Oil and Gas, Retail, Insurance and education. Don't be afraid to reach out to other sectors when searching

[GPC2013]

PMs should potentially have been getting up to speed to become Scrum Masters or Scrum Coaches.

As a BA, you need to potentially consider this too, with possibly being an SME or product owner; BAs are still needed - e.g. MIFID, Basel III, IFRS17 specialism would all be useful for contractors, but you have a duty more than ever to get ahead of the game in the way that we techies are getting up to speed on things like BI in the cloud, migration to it, etc.

Useful advice, appreciated. I've always succeeded "on the job", without certifications but I think in the most competitive market we've been in, they're essential (Agile-Scrum Certification, PgM etc.).
I have all the regulations to my name, but there just don't seem to be the roles; getting ahead of the game... something I hadn't even considered when comfortably in a role... so thank you for that! Will definitely consider...

[GPC2013]

I'm a BA/PM and generally find that the skills are very much transferable across all sectors. You are gathering requirements, documenting them, sharing them with developers, testing and training users. I've worked in Transport, Oil and Gas, Retail, Insurance and education. Don't be afraid to reach out to other sectors when searching

Useful advice, thank you. Have you any advice for marketing yourself in the crossover? Is it about making your CV as generic/transferable as possible? Any tips for the cover letter? e.g. "although my experience is in FS, my transferable skills in leadership, requirements, stakeholder engagement would lend to <your industry>" etc.?

Thanks again.

[Paralytic]

PMs should potentially have been getting up to speed to become Scrum Masters or Scrum Coaches.

The PM role and the Scrum Master role are actually very different from each other, with very little overlap in the actuality of what the role should involve (although the skills required to do one do help with the other).

However, the way Scrum is being implemented at many clients is that they're still wanting/expecting the Scrum Master to perform (large parts of) the PM role. This is true even more-so at financial services clients, where agile and governance do no co-habit comfortably when it comes to governance.

So, I'd agree that getting the agile training, getting the certification and start to call yourself an Agile Project Manager / Scrum Master could be the way forward

[BritishLad88]

where agile and governance do no co-habit comfortably when it comes to governance.

Indeed, the big banks love their governance (understandably) and when they attempt to go agile they struggle massively. So they end up reverting back to old school waterfall project management in a way of denial that agile sucks. Just they not willing to embrace it fully. As it would mean relinquish certain amount of control and governance. For a big enterprise, this is considered not acceptable to them.

getting the agile training, getting the certification and start to call yourself an Agile Project Manager / Scrum Master could be the way forward

I echo above advice. try get on to the agile bandwagon. will do you much good. The world is not just FS. there's more out there than you know it.
most non financial services industry are practicing agile.

So for you career perspective...
If you stick to old school BA/PM style roles then your pool of choices are probably restricted to the Finanical Services. Yes, FS is all about money and most people think that working in the FS sector will earn them more (whether its contract or perm).

But the other industries are starting to catch up!. If you get yourself some agile knowledge, it would give you more exposure/more opportunities/more of a selection of clients (from other industries aside from the FS) to choose from as your next client/employer or whatever.

[LondonManc]

Indeed, the big banks love their governance (understandably) and when they attempt to go agile they struggle massively. So they end up reverting back to old school waterfall project management in a way of denial that agile sucks. Just they not willing to embrace it fully. As it would mean relinquish certain amount of control and governance. For a big enterprise, this is considered not acceptable to them.

I agree with this to an extent but see it more as things being organised into work streams with organised JFDI being the flavour of the month aka Agile so loose, you'd probablly only call it Agile because you couldn't tell whether it's Scrum or Kanban. They use Jira for tickets of work. My suspicion is that these JIRA tickets are all parts of some waterfall project plan in the background. #Agilefall ?

[fiisch]

BA, London Insurance Market, current outside IR35 gig which is remaining so for the foreseeable. (Contractors assessed individually, and I was determined outside).

Watching from a distance relieved to be in a "safe" seat while the changes come into play, but keeping my eyes firmly open on the permanent market. If current trend continues, I suspect next role will be permanent.