If BFSI experience is a prerequisite, how does someone actually break into the finance industry?

Banks bubble: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Deutsche
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I’d like to hear some honest perspectives from recruiters, hiring managers and technology professionals working in banking, financial services and FinTech.

I’m an experienced technology professional with experience across different industries and have worked with modern engineering practices throughout my career.

Yet there seems to be a recurring challenge when applying for technology roles within banks, financial institutions and FinTech companies:

The CV gets filtered because the candidate’s experience isn’t exclusively from BFSI/FinTech.

And this creates what feels like a catch-22:

To get BFSI experience, you need to get into BFSI.
But to get into BFSI, you’re expected to already have BFSI experience.

I completely understand why domain knowledge matters. Banking and financial services have complex regulations, security requirements, transaction flows, risk considerations and business processes. Someone who has worked in the domain will naturally have an advantage.

But for roles where the core requirement is technical — such as software engineering roles — should domain experience really outweigh strong, transferable professional skills?

And there is another frustrating part:

If the CV is rejected because of domain experience before the interview, the candidate never gets an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities or how quickly they can learn the financial domain.

So I’m curious:

How does someone with strong technology skills but limited or non-exclusive BFSI experience realistically transition into banking or FinTech?

Should companies:

  1. Consider transferable professional experience alongside domain experience?

  2. Create entry points for experienced professionals transitioning between industries?

  3. Assess domain knowledge separately from technical capability?

  4. Give candidates an opportunity to demonstrate their skills through interviews or assessments before filtering them out?

  5. Or is prior BFSI experience genuinely essential for most technology roles in financial services?

And for people who have successfully made this transition:

What actually worked for you?

Did you enter through a consultancy/vendor, a smaller FinTech, a role with less emphasis on domain knowledge, an internal referral, certification, networking — or simply persistence?

I’d genuinely like to hear perspectives from both sides, particularly recruiters and hiring managers.

Because if every financial institution asks for previous financial-services experience, where is the entry point for experienced technologists coming from other industries?

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Have you considered getting a job instead of asking strangers for handouts with Claude text?

What are you contributing to this forum, to this industry, to the world? What are you doing?

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I appreciate the concern, although I’m not sure where I asked anyone for a handout.

The post was a genuine question about an industry hiring practice, specifically the difficulty experienced professionals can face when trying to transition into BFSI. I was inviting perspectives from people who have actually navigated or participated in that process.

If you disagree with the premise, I’m happy to discuss the substance of the question. But questioning someone’s contribution to “the world” because they raised a career-related question doesn’t really add much to the discussion either.

As for what I contribute: I’ve spent years building a career, developing professional skills, working across industries and contributing to the organisations I’ve worked for. I’m also actively trying to understand how professionals can make a legitimate transition into a new industry.

That, incidentally, is exactly what the post was asking about.

If you have a constructive perspective on the BFSI hiring process, I’d genuinely be interested in hearing it.

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