Hi All,
My name is Mohammed, and I am an FDM Consultant on the Application Support Stream. I have completed a bachelors of mechanical engineering degree at Queen Mary then a masters of mechanical engineering at Brunel University. After graduating I was fortunate to come across FDM, applied and passed their assessment. I have only been here for nine months but I feel that I’ve achieved a year’s worth of learning and corporate experience. The academy is a great opportunity for graduates who believe in personal development.
Since joining FDM in March 2010 I’ve been on a very positive learning curve. The comprehensive training programs and certified examinations have resulted in a skilled, confident and technical candidate. After completing technical courses in UNIX, SQL and EXCEL VBA, I also attained qualifications in both ITIL (IT Infrastructure library) and IAQ (introduction to investment qualification).
After successfully acquiring such a range of technical and financial skills, I was placed at Credit Suisse London in May 2010 to work in the credit derivatives’ Application Support team. The environment there was dynamic, buzzing and challenging. The role gave me experience in the following:
• Supporting various trading applications and platforms used in the fixed income department
• Solving problems around PnL breaks, Data feeds, Risk figures and user rights
• Liaising between front office, Product Control, Risk and Strategy to deliver two essential tools for post trading data analysis.
• Migration projects, UAT, parallel testing, and regression testing
• Resolving urgent and immediate requests by various users in a vibrant and demanding environment
• Advanced use of EXCEL formulae and VBA
• Team working, time management, communication and problem solving skills were significantly enhanced
• Exposure to the organisational structure of investment banks
• Further understanding of financial processes and terms that affect our economy
The Credit Suisse project was completed in November 2010. Since then I’ve been back at the academy strengthening my technical skills by revising over courses and completing advanced UNIX and SQL Units. FDM have immediately found me a position at Lloyds FX support team.
Personally I think the main skills for an Application Support Analyst are communication, problem solving and organisational skills. An individual who can work under pressure, communicate efficiently and provide alternative solutions is likely to succeed. FDM places graduates on a unique and lucrative platform, with training and development, which prepares graduates for the corporate world.
- FDM is the place for ambitious, committed and motivated graduates!
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Hi Mohammed, so you would definitely recommend the fdm academy?? Because there are a lot of mix opinions on the FDM group and academy so
Please shed some light regarding your time there
Comment by Mo — March 5, 2011 @ 10:07 pm
Hey mo. I would definitely recommend Fdm they have amazing opportunities. They equip you with Many skills and technologies that will help you in the cooprate world . The bad opinions you hear about Fdm are Probably people who got rejected. I used to read a lot about Fdm ; but I’m glad I went there trained and now at lloyds. What you studying?
Comment by Mohamed — March 9, 2011 @ 7:30 am
Hi, Obviously I am not Mohammed but thought i would reply anyway. Application Support Analysis is basically an IT role within a financial organisation. You need to have a good understanding of the finance sector (which we teach in the Academy) as working in the environment you need to understand the terminology. The best blog entry to look at is ‘What is Application Support’ as this really explains it quite well. You may find if you have an Economics degree and want to work in finance in a less technical role, the PMO option may be suited to your skills?
Comment by Emily Dauris - Advertising Coordinator — May 16, 2011 @ 4:11 pm
Is the PMO option more suited than the Application Support Analysis, for an Economics graduate? I read about the App Support and said it does consist of finance such as the debt market, alternative investments including derivatives, futures and options, foreign exchange, and property, hedge funds and private equity.
Comment by Hatish — May 22, 2011 @ 4:32 pm
Hi Hatish, Economics may lend itself to either option. Both are closely related to the finance industry so chances are you would be working within an Investment Bank and economics is a good degree to have for that area. The thing is that you don’t really have to decide yet, it is possible to be assessed for both streams if you wish to apply. Then you can find out more and discuss this with our team, which you may find helpful
Comment by Emily Dauris - Advertising Coordinator — May 23, 2011 @ 8:10 am