Needless to say, there’s no revenue generation in the middle office. In my opinion, this makes for a more political environment: promotion is all about who you know and how much they like you.
For my sins, I have worked in a variety of jobs in the middle office. In the process, I have come across a variety of managers, most of whom can be fitted into one of several categories. These include:
Often very professional. Unfortunately not very likeable.
Usually has weak technical knowledge and is capable only of writing e-mails. These managers can often delegate almost EVERYTHING. Blame for not meeting targets is attributed to everyone except themselves.
Within middle office divisions, there is often a culture of "making yourself seen/heard." This will often manifest as childish/moronic observations in dull divisional meetings. These people are frequently incompetent to a degree that could pose a serious level of operational risk. PowerPoint professionals, they will spend their days interacting with people on a face to face basis leaving no audit trail. Confirm anything they say in an e-mail.
He or she will do his/her utmost to defend colleagues. Actually quite pleasant to work with.
This person has often worked at a bulge bracket and will have moved to a lower tier bank in search of better work-life balance. He will speak frequently about procedures at a previous employer, before realizing that it’s not necessary to work so hard anymore. Can be bearable once this revelation has been achieved.