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I have worked at 2 really big banks and they have many very talented, well-rounded people.

The friction is there to protect the firm.

It's true, though, that upper leadership tends to be incompetent. Don't hire them.

But finance tech VPs and ExecDirs are often highly skilled, smart people.

A lot of the friction in the banks is for legal reasons - they HAVE to abide by certain protocols. If you treat that as an extra challenge rather than a hindrance it will be more rewarding.

Yes and no. There are teams and people who protect their headcount and interests under the guise of compliance. But very often they're enforcing one interpretation or implementation of the law. And very often, they're audited as to whether they follow the process they designed and not the process itself.

Navigating the regulatory landscape to introduce change is high skill and art that I've rarely seen but does exist.

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