OT: UCONN FINTECH Offering

[Rich]

I don't think you need to be a programmer, or would want to be. To create software, you need someone to write the code, debug, test etc. But you also need somebody to design it. As an old ex-finance guy I think the sweet spot for someone like you is to learn enough about the technology and some light coding skills that you can be in the design roll. Your experience very much matters there. No CS major coming out of college has the slightest idea what a financial transaction system needs to actually do. How it has to work. The regulatory compliance pieces it has to solve for. So they need people who can speak both languages so to speak.

That is how they were selling the program in the info session. I was a bit skeptical though of how one would understand, say, C Sharp without substantial hands on experience. Coding is no joke and actually being good at it is another matter altogether.

I do get what you're saying though. It's like the programmer is the bullet and the designers are the gun so to speak.

 

[imno1]

I was trying to make a funny.

But in all seriousness, I have never heard the term "fintech" until just now.

It like Silicon Valley but in Scandinavia

 

[the Q]

I have passed up many opportunities to change jobs over the years. But Coinbase had an appealing opening in the legal dept. for a job based in Boston and I found myself tempted for the first time in a long time.

If it was remote I’d be all over it lol

 

[CL82]

I would say worth it. My wife works in Fintech and they pay HUGE salaries.

Humble brag

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

Thank you. Do you mind if I ask what industry?

I'm at a "start up" healthcare tech company

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Ask yourself if your daughters actually expect to have checking accounts 5-10 years from now.

When I first lived in Europe 25 years ago, minimal use of checks blew me away. Now, some US Americans' ongoing preferred use of checks for almost all payments blows me away. In 2021, I've written all of 2 paper checks to contractors and use of greenbacks is minimal.

 

[the Q]

When I first lived in Europe 25 years ago, minimal use of checks blew me away. Now, some US Americans' ongoing preferred use of checks for almost all payments blows me away. In 2021, I've written all of 2 paper checks to contractors and use of greenbacks is minimal.

I get it.

I still want them to exist to avoid massive govt encroachment and overreach

 

[storrsroars]

We had a senior guy at CBT (I think that was the bank) come in to finance class, saying the top 3 ATMs in usage rate in the state were all on UConn's campus.

That's because the one across the street from Mirror Lake kept giving you money even when you had zero or less balance ;-)

Banks now sell a 24 hour float as a feature. Back in 1978 is was definitely a bug.

 

[storrsroars]

I get it.

I still want them to exist to avoid massive govt encroachment and overreach

Most of Europe has much better privacy laws than the US. If you were trained on US B2C marketing in the 80s/90s, you'd be lost in Europe in the 2000s. And even today, digital marketing that's normal here won't fly in much of Europe because of restrictions on how you can obtain and use consumer data.

Still, we've been behind the times here. I was consulting with a trade show organizer in Sofia in 2003. They did car shows, food shows, and the like. Where in the US you'd have a ton of local radio, newspaper, and direct mail to attract attendees, even back then an entrepreneur in Bulgaria was using SMS as their key marketing tool - with strict privacy laws, like no reselling the data. For tracking purposes as to what messaging worked it was miles ahead of US tactics at that time. While Google and Facebook ads provide excellent tracking data, those didn't exist for another decade. It was totally mind-blowing for me and I regret not investing more heavily in US companies that had the capacity for data marketing because I knew it was coming eventually.

 

[Zionn]

Humble brag

I respect where you can view it this way, but I was being sincere. We discuss it all the time. I work in healthcare and the salaries that fintech folks can obtain with under 2 years of exp. compared to a medical provider 10+ years in the field is insane. The large fintech companies all have deeeeeeeep pockets and are all in the hunt for the same top talent. IMO the ROI of pursuing this type of added education would be tenfold.

 

[HooperScooper]

I was trying to make a funny.

But in all seriousness, I have never heard the term "fintech" until just now.

Seriously? It's big business these days. Big up here in Boston.

33 Top Boston Fintech Companies You Should Know | Built In Boston

Meet the Boston fintech companies pushing the industry forward.

www.builtinboston.com

 

[8893]

Seriously? It's big business these days. Big up here in Boston.

33 Top Boston Fintech Companies You Should Know | Built In Boston

Meet the Boston fintech companies pushing the industry forward.

www.builtinboston.com

I'm guessing I heard it discussed on Marketplace or some such before, but I obviously didn't pay attention.

 

[huskyinfl]

Teamtreehouse.com gives you 7 days free and is 25 bucks a month. I was able to use it to learn HTML CSS JavaScript jQuery and some Python. Start a GitHub account and stay active. A lot of coding is knowing where to steal the code from. Like stack overflow and everything

 

[the Q]

Most of Europe has much better privacy laws than the US. If you were trained on US B2C marketing in the 80s/90s, you'd be lost in Europe in the 2000s. And even today, digital marketing that's normal here won't fly in much of Europe because of restrictions on how you can obtain and use consumer data.

Still, we've been behind the times here. I was consulting with a trade show organizer in Sofia in 2003. They did car shows, food shows, and the like. Where in the US you'd have a ton of local radio, newspaper, and direct mail to attract attendees, even back then an entrepreneur in Bulgaria was using SMS as their key marketing tool - with strict privacy laws, like no reselling the data. For tracking purposes as to what messaging worked it was miles ahead of US tactics at that time. While Google and Facebook ads provide excellent tracking data, those didn't exist for another decade. It was totally mind-blowing for me and I regret not investing more heavily in US companies that had the capacity for data marketing because I knew it was coming eventually.

I meant more the digital federal currency vs cash and checks.

Don’t get me started on how it’s legal to take and sell our data

 

[Rich]

ya know who really understands 'fintech?' cpa's. them folks are the only 'traditional' professionals who are consistently professional. students would be better advised to get that degree.
an older bud of mine, a cpa, "some say he caused the '08 crash by inventing (?) (at bear, lehman, or goldman, i forget which) the collateralization and standardization of mortgage backed securities,' the fintech gold standard of finding something there, legally, that everrone else was sleeping on. guy knows jack squat aboot 'programming,' but he has a real good analytical brain.
lately, he's been working on another legal 'angle' of pinching off a bit from the mortgage servicing fees that many pay, packaging them in volume, and then selling that pile as some kind of 'guaranteed income stream' product, which is a great idea iffn everrbody is paying their mortgages. iffn they aren't? well......
irs called him down to the swamp last spring to ask aboot it. prolly went sumthin like 'wait, whut?'
and as far as 'tech,' this was a monumental week in world history, as, for the first time to my knowledge, the chinese took that horrible personal credit/health certification nonsense, and arbitrarily and surreptitiously changed the health score for some guy who talked too loud. no greenlight, no movement. guy couldn't leave his house. mebbe we should call sum of this 'fraudtech.' cf, the movie 'running man.' arnold was great in that one.

Uhhhh...I am a CPA.

 

[HuskyHawk]

If it was remote I’d be all over it lol

I think it is. Check Linked in.

 

[Stinger92860]

So I see UCONN is offering a Master's in Fintech. The curriculum is really split into two pieces as of now; first builds a foundation in coding (R, C Sharp, Python) and the other on practical application of analytics to various functional aspects of an organization (finance, sales, (Gulp) HR, logistics etc.

Looks like 36 credits at $1500 per. Interesting. But I wonder what something like this is actually worth? Isn't it....less costly to for instance learn these languages via Code Academy, Coursera etc? The only value proposition I can think of here is that the commercial connections must be really outstanding and grads won't have any trouble getting jobs.

One of those things that looks really awesome on its face but 45K later you might be kicking yourself. Not denying that Fintech isn't a big deal right now and a real opportunity field but I wonder if this is the best way to gain access, especially for those without an undergrade computer science or engineering background.

I think there are more affordable alternatives

 

[aburks41]

I used to work for a large fintech company as a product developer and was thinking about this program, but I really didn't see a benefit to it because of how much it costs. Maybe if you are in a corp finance role and want to transition into fintech, it would be a worthwhile thing to pursue - but you could teach yourself Python for free in about 2 months and save yourself the 50k.

I ended up moving into management consulting. More money, and less annoying development work

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Uhhhh...I am a CPA.

u r? cool. take the earlier high praise, and run with it.

back in mba days, after i handed in a project or something, fin accounting prof says to me 'ur gonna be wealthy, or in jail.' i listened to and liked that guy becuz he wrote the book we were using, so i figgered he knew something. ya see, once the keys to the kingdom were revealed (financial accounting), with all their nooks and crannies to hide in, my project thing was, well lets just call them 'sinking fund debentures' and legal ways to use them that weren't common. now, the quicksearch net definition of debenture,
[dəˈben(t)SHər]
NOUN

NORTH AMERICAN
an unsecured loan certificate issued by a company, backed by general credit rather than by specified assets.
BRITISH
a long-term security yielding a fixed rate of interest, issued by a company and secured against assets.

hmmm, well that's odd. it seems that here it is unsecured, yet in merry old england it appears to be secured. kinda like it's foul in one ballpark when it hits the pole, but in another ballpark, it's fair.
i think that the lawyers call it 'forum shopping.'
is it a bond, or is it a stock? is it something else? do they take it out of my hide for payback, or do i say 'i'll gladly pay you next never?' and what exactly, in the security pecking order, were those things now famously referred to as 'cmo's? not very secure, methinks. fintech high art.
so, yeah, i fintekked a masterful finance scheme back in schooldaze, armed only with some education, and a newfound appreciation for the rules of accounting.
i encouraged a close relative, mentioned before, to nose around that 'data management' thing when he was at uni, cuz he liked, and was good, with figgers. now he's a mid 20s guy, with a 3br and a gf, living in nyc, and all the fancy opinion research companies ask him 'how much u want?' folks is getting blinded by the numbers, and the machines used to manage them. fintech is just data arbitrage crafted in a proprietary way.
take knowledge (financial accounting), add a pantload of computers to crunch the numbers faster and faster, triggering decisions, hit the 'go' switch, and head for lunch. if the weather is nice, u can be on the waves at 2. im stickin with cpa is a better education.

i did not know that fintech was scandanavia's silicon valley. i bet that they serve lox at all the functions.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

It like Silicon Valley but in Scandinavia

Like Silicon Valley FinTech (SoFi, Affirm, even quirky Vlad's Robinhood), but also in the City, Boston, Charlotte, Seattle, LA, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, Philly, Wilmington and other smaller metro and rural areas nationally.
Sampling of pre-IPO FinTech innovators

 

[Rich]

u r? cool. take the earlier high praise, and run with it.

back in mba days, after i handed in a project or something, fin accounting prof says to me 'ur gonna be wealthy, or in jail.' i listened to and liked that guy becuz he wrote the book we were using, so i figgered he knew something. ya see, once the keys to the kingdom were revealed (financial accounting), with all their nooks and crannies to hide in, my project thing was, well lets just call them 'sinking fund debentures' and legal ways to use them that weren't common. now, the quicksearch net definition of debenture,
[dəˈben(t)SHər]
NOUN

NORTH AMERICAN
an unsecured loan certificate issued by a company, backed by general credit rather than by specified assets.
BRITISH
a long-term security yielding a fixed rate of interest, issued by a company and secured against assets.

hmmm, well that's odd. it seems that here it is unsecured, yet in merry old england it appears to be secured. kinda like it's foul in one ballpark when it hits the pole, but in another ballpark, it's fair.
i think that the lawyers call it 'forum shopping.'
is it a bond, or is it a stock? is it something else? do they take it out of my hide for payback, or do i say 'i'll gladly pay you next never?' and what exactly, in the security pecking order, were those things now famously referred to as 'cmo's? not very secure, methinks. fintech high art.
so, yeah, i fintekked a masterful finance scheme back in schooldaze, armed only with some education, and a newfound appreciation for the rules of accounting.
i encouraged a close relative, mentioned before, to nose around that 'data management' thing when he was at uni, cuz he liked, and was good, with figgers. now he's a mid 20s guy, with a 3br and a gf, living in nyc, and all the fancy opinion research companies ask him 'how much u want?' folks is getting blinded by the numbers, and the machines used to manage them. fintech is just data arbitrage crafted in a proprietary way.
take knowledge (financial accounting), add a pantload of computers to crunch the numbers faster and faster, triggering decisions, hit the 'go' switch, and head for lunch. if the weather is nice, u can be on the waves at 2. im stickin with cpa is a better education.

i did not know that fintech was scandanavia's silicon valley. i bet that they serve lox at all the functions.

Massive difference btw secured vs unsecured. Pre 2008 the rates were pretty close for large companies but not no more. Paranoia rules.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

fintech - if, then.
if coal gets pricey, then china goes dark, and the potential financial ramifications get gameplayed, like many factories operating on reduced hours. gdp and such algos.
if natgas goes way up, then folks in Hartford will spend much more each month for electricity, and the potential financial ramifications get gameplayed, like, less money available to purchase gi joe with the kungfu grip.
walmart has an algorithm predicting their customers buying behavior if regular gas prices move 10 cents in either direction.
fintech.

 

[Drumguy]

I'm a CPA and Fintech is a big part of our daily lives and is the future. Our entire technology stack is integrated with various levels of Fintech and we're adding more all the time. I'm about to add a new Fintech product to deliver tax returns and e-signatures (about $15k) today. We use QBO for many clients - basic Fintech. We use Bill.com and oterh apps - Fintech. Our portals and related apps - you got it. A lot of Venture Capital right now is going heavy into Fintec - companies like Pilot, Bench, KPMG Sparks etc. Lots of money going there right now.

Our newest staff member is in the Fintech program at UConn.

We're also hiring if anyone knows anyone looking for an accounting job. Can be 100% remote! We're based in Westport, but that doesn't mean that much anymore.

 

[8893]

We're also hiring if anyone knows a Gen Z'er looking for an accounting job.

Pssst: Lose the age-related reference

 

[Drumguy]

Pssst: Lose the age-related reference

I just changed it, but most likely we're looking for someone just out of school or with a few years experience. We operate so differently from a traditional acounting firm. I literally just watched a "generational - workforce" presentation, so that's where my mind was!

One of our biggest problems in the industry is ALL accounting programs (UConn too) push the Big 4 and totally ignore small firms which is where the opportunities really are. Big firms are actually struggling with using Fintech on smaller clients.