Architects of Electronic Trading: Technology Leaders Who Are Shaping Today's Financial Markets

CHAPTER 18

Special Focus

The Shortage of IT Talent

In this special section, Daryan Dehghanpisheh of NYSE Technologies discusses a very serious problem facing the industry: How can firms meet the increasing day-to-day demands of their growing technology infrastructures, discover promising applications, and implement new technology in new ways that add value, all without sufficient staff?

This book has covered a broad range of major topical issues in financial technology but is far from complete. As such, it presents only a partial picture of the scope of the IT challenges facing the industry. How and how effectively firms approach new technology is only part of the problem. Maintenance of existing systems also places high demands on IT departments. This chapter provides a sobering perspective on how a dearth of qualified IT talent is acting as a brake on IT innovation.

An image problem also contributes to the scarcity of IT talent in our industry. The financial crisis, high-profile incidents, and general economic malaise have negatively impacted people's opinions of the financial industry and, in doing so, made financial services a less-attractive employer in the eyes of many. As has been well documented in the popular media, young people are increasingly choosing professions that are less structured and more social in nature. In the tech area, rapid growth and rewarding compensation packages can be found in Silicon Valley. This combination of factors complicates the job of finding ...