Chicago Java Developer -> Finance?

[henrychang]

Short Question

I'm a Java developer in Chicago, working for a fortune 100 company. I want to stay in Chicago, so I'm assuming that my employment venues will be largely restricted to prop shops. Would my background as a Java developer be negligible when seeking employment while in the MSFM at Chicago? What would be the challenges that I would face considering my background?

A little about me, in case it helps to know:

I specialize in web services for the most part and have been doing it for the past 4 years post graduation. But C++ is the de facto for the finance world.

As an undergraduate, I did spend a lot of my time with C/C++, matlab, working on Scientific Computing/Parallel Comp stuff, and it was really fun. My maths aren't tooo strong: Calc I, II, & III, Linear Algebra, 1 semester of DEQ, Probability Theory, and Statistical Theory. But I LOVE to program.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I'm sure a lot of place would love to more hire talented developers
Contact Matt Moye who runs quantrecuiter.com blog and todd fahey who is another Chicago-based recruiter.

 

[henrychang]

Thank you Andy Nguyen :D That's fairly encouraging.

I've been doing some research about quant jobs that may interest those who have my background, such as this one (J2EE, Spring, Hibernate, Struts, etc.). But before I contact these recruiters, I think it'd be more constructive that I understand what the general public sentiment about "Java" developers in finances is. Perhaps that would enable me to ask better-informed questions.

As much as I enjoy learning new technologies, or building on what I've studied in the past, I DO prefer to stick with what I've managed to build expertise in. With that being said, I'm worried that, if I do manage to land a job at some of the newer prop shops in Chicago, I may end up picking up only a 'developer only' role, as opposed to utilizing my judgment as a newly minted financial engineer. I know that this isn't necessarily a bad thing per se, since I'd be able to get my foot in the door, and perhaps find a way to break into a more quant type role.

So I'd definitely like to know what type of setbacks I'd be putting myself into if I adamantly chose to stick with "Java" as my primary weapon of choice - I'm not too young, so I'd really like to know weigh my options before even tackling the GRE and putting myself through the entire application process. So any observations/insights about Java developers in the industry would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

EDIT:

One last thing: I'm more interested in fixed income, as opposed to equity. It's just sort of an affinity that I have; my entire investments are in a pure bond portfolio that has served me very well for the past several years, and I'm tremendously curious about the underlying mechanisms in fixed income.