As a general rule, any position that will get you face time with traders can potentially lead to being brought onto the desk. I have seen the following examples - at an IB, quants (mostly to exo desks, though), IT, controllers and middle office. At a fund it’s harder to move to a pm group (even if PM wants you to) for various reasons but I have seen execution IT dude move into a pm type role.
There are doubtless some potential employers of whom the two statements quoted above are perfectly valid. I hope it won't cause too much consternation if I mention that there may be others, too. I do so because what's said in the two quotations above is all totally different both from my own experiences, and from those of some others I know. I fully agree with those two observations.
Jobs become "meaningless" when you're a clock-puncher. If you're ambitious and make yourself valuable, you'll move up on the Street.
The NY/NJ/CT area probably has well over 1000 firms related to the investment community. Everything from: Brokers Funds Family Offices Data and Analytical Service Providers News Services I can go on and I'm probably a 1000 firms light just on all the funds. Get out there or get on the phone and sell yourself. Here is OCC's member directory. Most are represented in your market. https://www.theocc.com/membership/member-information/
From my perspective as a PM, it would never be a decisive factor that a person trades well in his personal account. However, it’s definitely a good conversation point and can be a plus. So it totally makes sense to bring the trade records with you and be ready to discuss in detail. Same for anything else that can potentially sway the interviewers opinion - back tests, models, presentations etc. Case in point - recently i interviewed a kid that does a lot of crypto currency trading in his personal account. While I have no plans to trade CCs here (*) it made for an interesting chat and I got some insight into his thought process. * disclaimer - I am a proud owner of 5 bitcoins from 4 years ago but that’s about as far my involvement in crypto goes
Wow I didn't even know this directory existed. Thank you so much. Would emailing be as effective as calling? I work full-time so I never have the chance to call during the weekdays