GS. Go to GS, get more money, better training, better experience, better resume. From there do whatever you want. Go to the trading job, and you just trashed your resume and your options.
Once again Tom Cole shows up to share his infinite wisdom with the masses!!! What I don't get is that Tom seems to think that nobody but himself is Ivy League, he doesn't believe anyone who says anything remotely positive about themselves and yet he loves to boast himself. I think that maybe Mr. Cole is just jealous and likes to feel important on a meaningless website by putting others down. After all what proof do we really have that Tom here isn't a bitter janitor, high school drop-out or prop shop burn-out with a community college background. Grow up Tom because at worst you're a fraud and at best you're just an attention seeking, self-important, show-off prick. But fear not all, one day Karma will pay Tom back with generous interest, because I have never seen him post anything of worth geared to help anyone. But then what good advice does anyone get from a jealous, bitter, twisted, cynical nerd with 644 posts of insults and boasts. Now to the original poster, I say take the GS job. GS may pay you 150k but the network and experience are in fact worth double or triple that in the long run. So when you talk about taking the $45k per year trading job in the hope of being the 1-in-50 at best that get to $500k per year take home you should bear in mind that you could have had that from GS in an arbitrary way anyhow. If you want to be an options trader then just think of the GS job as being an option with $150k intrinsic value and time-value of perhaps twice that per year (only with a positive Theta). The trading job however is like roulette, you pick a number and hope that you win once, because even if you pick correct could you be sure to win again. I have seen so many traders have one great year or two and then go cold in their trading and never regain their composure or confidence. You talk about a guy making $500k at 26 years, well that's just one guy who made that money one time; and now he is their great reference point to cite in order to sell guys like you the dream. GS will have had many people who made that amount and more by that age, the REAL difference being that they kept on making it year after year. Take GS and never look back. Sure trading is fun but that can come later, and its better to trade for a hedge fund rather than be an options market-maker anyway, and the GS job will leave that door open in the future.
dude, just follow yr heart here... in any case there will always be days where you'll come to regret not taking the other choice. and then days where u'll realize that all the choices are still open to you if you are determined enough... its all in the mind... clearly GS is the 'reasonable' course here, but who says you need to be 'reasonable' or even that 'reasonable' is 'right'? only thing for sure, if you can't take a gamble, you'll never be a trader, even if you work for GS, and even if they call you a trader at GS... ;-) but who cares, doesn't mean you won't live an enjoyable and fulfilling life! cheers
being from a top 2% school means he followed directions and did whatever the instructor and peers told him to do 98% of the time. so right now he needs someone of authority to tell him what to do.
Right now he needs to listen to the bright and experienced people here. Carl... tell us what you're going to do?
wait a sec.. goldman pays their top undergrad hires 150k? This seems out of whack. I know the range is atleast 70 - 100k, but I've never heard of an undergrad make 150k And what company lets an offer like this be outstanding for 3 months? The only way I see this is if you're a boy genius and they're dying to keep you. In most companies, if they give a college student a great offer, and you tell them it'll take you 3 months to decide, they'll say "thanks anyways" cuz they have to get that spot filled and aren't going to wait for your dumb ass to decide. But lets say you really want to be an options trader, and if you really are the boy genius. Get a job at an options market making firm or hedge firm that'll get you a 100k salary. Should be easy to convince someone if you can convince goldman you're worth 150k plus 3 months wait. Or how bout this "I really want to work for you but goldman is offering me 100k. How bout getting my salary up from the deadbeat 40k level to something more worthwhile" Or this option -- work at goldman, pretend your making 45k a year, save the leftover money (should be about 60k after taxes). In a few years, you'll have a nest egg that'll (if you keep letting it appreciate) setup your retirement. Then quit goldman and go back to that 40k job that you want so much. Or this option -- stop posting made up stories on the forum The only reason I actually posted this message is because I'm hoping this is actually a real dilemma. If it is it has to be one of the most hilarious non-problem problems ever
My point is that Tomcole doesn't need to try and tear people down before they get started in the business. That's for the markets to do. The primary purpose of this board is information exchange, and if newbies can benefit from drawing on the knowledge of those with experience then the system works well. But I am yet to see Tomcole say one genuinely helpful thing to ANY discussion. He just seems to rear his ugly head whenever he feels like accusing someone of lying about their qualifications or to predict their impending doom. He has internet chat-room troll written all over him. I still agree with Tomcole and everyone else that the GS job is the smarter move to make in the short run. But there are nice ways to give people advice and then there are just plain rude ways; Tomcole seems to enjoy the latter a touch too much.