Bloomberg/Reuters training outside of Finance/Trade Floor Support

Infina

Hey guys,

1st post here but I've been a lurker here for a while. I recently got a hardware support job in an investment bank doing hardware swaps. I come from a 3yr helpdesk background that included troubleshooting all kinds of peripherals and devices, software, hardware, phones etc and I feel because of the economy I've had to take up this menial job instead of doing what I like doing or what I would like to (basic server admin roles [i'm almost done with the mcsa]). Basically the "real" helpdesk determines if a part needs to be switched out, so I go and swap in a functioning mouse (yay) which brings me to my question - outside of learning on-the-job (I don't think I will be able to, given my position, is there any training, books or any other materials to learn Bloomberg and/or Reuters? I would definitely love to be able to support a trade floor but all available job openings online ask for experience with those applications, which I will never be able to get installing monitors all day.

Thanks alot for any help

sambuca69

You'll have a hard time finding anything like that to read. To my knowledge they don't have anything like that available.

What size firm are you working in?

I started my career as a desktop support -> trade floor support tech, in a mid-sized investment banking company. In the small to mid-sized companies, its easier to get recognized as someone with half a clue, and allowed to work on other systems, in my opinion.

To be honest, most of the times on the trade floor you are dealing with as OS issue. If you get into a bind with the applications you'll call either Bloomberg or Reuters right then and there... and, you'll have a senior/market data engineer there always.

What you really need to work trade floor, is to be able to think and solve issues quick, so maybe emphasize that in your resume and interviews.

Infina

Thanks for the input, sambuca. Before this job, I worked IT for a global retailer, so I have the problem-solving skills down. It's just that the firm I work for is pretty large. Their helpdesk/software support team is over 14 people. My team is about 5 people who do these hardware replacements. I think my best bet would be to become good buddies with one of those helpdesk guys who does have a hand in the "bigger" things and hopefully he can give a good word for me. What's preventing me from learning/doing more is the responsibilities of my position, not my actual skill level. I'm basically limited to doing 1 task only.

kentrg

Infinia i was in your very same position when i first started in IT. My first job was a Hardware Tech upgrading/replacing PC's at a large investment bank. After setting up the PCs users would often ask me desktop questions and i took every opportunity to sit down and help them whether it was Office or Reuters/Bloomberg. At first i had no idea what i was doing but you learn, adapt and resolve the issues. Over the course of my employment i learned how to troubleshoot all versions of Reuters and other trading platforms.

Like Sam said trading floor is basically quick Desktop Support response. Most of the troubleshooting in financial firms are indeed OS or Office related with slight stress on excel. If you want to expose yourself to bloomberg/reuters/thompson/factset your priority would be Desktop/Help desk in small financial firms.

Bloomberg provides live support for its software as part of its $1500/m subscription. If you work for any financial firm/hedge fund most of Blomberg troubleshooting will be basic bloomberg keyboard/file association and excel API installs. Everything else like functions and support will involve calling Bloomberg. I know some libraries have Bloomberg terminals open to the public so that might be your best bet to get a feel for it.