Does working at a bank limit my chances of working at a technical company?

Question

After graduating in Statistics I had 3 different jobs for about 3.5 years as a Data Analyst at smaller tech companies. 3 years ago I decided to move to Amsterdam and I applied for lots of Data Analyst/Scientist positions from abroad and had interest/interviews from companies as Booking, eBay, Bol, big, and small local tech companies.

I ended up accepting a job offer from a Dutch bank as they offered a substantially higher salary compared to the other offers, which I valued quite a lot as Amsterdam is expensive.

When I started the job I realized quickly the job description was over-exaggerated, it was advertised as a technical Data Analyst, which it was not. I have discovered that banks are very far behind when it comes to technology. I did, however, stay because I was afraid of having 4 jobs in less than 4 years would look bad, then the colleagues turned out to be nice and the company promoted me quickly.

Currently, I'm only working at the bank because of the money and now I want to go back to tech companies as that is my interest. Earlier this year I started applying for jobs at essentially the same companies I applied for 3-4 years ago. The response I get is way less and when it's not an "automated reply" I try to get back to the recruiter and got the reply from 2 saying they are looking for more technical people.

This surprises me a bit as the only thing that changed on my resume is that I've added that I work for a bank. Can it really be that recruiters quickly filter away people coming from the finance industry because they also know it's not as "techny" or has the market changed over these 4 years and made my background less attractive?

Answer 1

Except that working at a bank isn't the only thing to have changed on your resume - your experience and the work you did at the bank is probably different, too, from your previous roles. And you were promoted - did these promotions mean more managerial/administrative responsibility.

got the reply from 2 saying they are looking for more technical people.

Unfortunately, this kind of reply is a common cop-out by recruiters.

However, you might do well to review your resume and look to highlight more technical work and reduce references to administrative work, if you're looking at more technical roles. You should be raising your resume to the job requirements listed in the advert, anyway.

Answer 2

It seems unlikely that the problem is that you worked at a bank: it's that you're trying to move into a more technical position than your current role.

I know that for Data Science positions, "Data Analyst" is often a red flag that someone won't have the required technical skills in programming, machine-learning etc. If you're getting feedback from recruiters that you're not "technical" enough for the roles you want, try to emphasise the technical aspects of your current role in your CV: do you write code? what are the more technical tools/techniques that you use? Are there other ways that you can show that you are the technical hire that they're looking for?

A friend of mine went from a Data Scientist role to a more project-management role, but now she is having a hard time applying for more technical roles, because she isn't writing code in her current position.