Why project execution is so different in i-banking and tech startups
If you ask a banker trying to transition into the tech startups what are the skills he or she can bring to the table, 90% of the chance you would get the following answers:
“I’m experienced in cross-functional execution. I work with internal and external stakeholders ranging from regulators and company executives to peer banks and law firms, and I always close the deal under time pressure.”
“We are very used to leading the complex project teams without authority, influencing them with my professionalism and research…”
“I excelled in problem-solving. I’m great at qualitative and quantitative analysis and I’m a result-driven (esp. compared to fancy consultants) and detailed-oriented strategic thinker.”
I get away with the above answers in my career transition from banking to tech. As a former banker having worked on 50+ deals and closed 30+ of them, I truly believed in my answers back then.
Those statements are true, but not enough to make you succeed in reality. The longer I am in tech the more I realize that the challenges in project executions are really different in banking and in operational settings in tech companies (esp. emerging ones):
- More Diversity in Team -> Less Predictability
Not until recently, I realized that the variation in people in the world of professional service is around 1/10 of the variation in people in the rest of the world. And long years in professional service would blind you from the differences in “real world” people. The broader cultural background, their personal life, their career path, their inner drivers (or lack of inner drivers) among many other things together contribute to their behavior.
Turning a blind eye to all these factors and stick with your old ways of communicating will only make you frustrated and eventually get angry.
2. More Ambiguity/Trial and Errors in both Goals and Paths
Quite a lot of business in an emerging tech company is still young compared to other ancient industries such as investment banking, which means even the most senior executives may not have clear answers to all questions (even if they do, they are very likely to change), not to mention people on the front lines dealing with all types of tasks and micro decision-makings. A typical example in our business is that it’s really difficult to draw a black and white line for many content moderation issues, though we have a clear set out OKR and detailed pages long protocols it still drills down to the one single content moderation specialist to decide where that piece of content is going. And together, this group of people determine where your platform is going.
Besides ambiguity in goals and strategies, the paths to those goals are also full of “ambiguity” and “uncertainty”. If you find these two keywords in a JD of a company, you need to be very careful and ask yourself whether indeed you are ready for that. You have to charter the map along the way and you have to constantly update and redefine the process as you push the project forward. That sounds exciting, but is also the most struggling part for someone from a more established or structured envionment.
3. Different Constraints
In my past life in banking, the biggest constraints you need to fight with is the time limit (I don't list human resources here because people in professional service and executives eager to get their IPO or MA done are almost all overachievers with high efficiency). You try your best to avoid mistakes and stay sane despite sleep deprivation. While within a company, you are facing many constraints such as the amount of internal sponsorship you could get, the budget you have at hand, the human resources that you can pull from everywhere.
Sometimes the time it takes to define or alleviate some constraints can even be longer than the project itself, which is the part that go-getters in banking may not be very familiar with.
All above being said, operational efficiency and structured thinking is still something that former bankers can be proud of when they enter into tech. Being more aware of the environment and pay more attention to these caveats will make your transition less frustrated than mine.
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p.s. People closest to me always complained that I asked too many questions and answered too few. So this is going to be how I move forward with my blog writing: to provide my answers to my questions.