Anyone have experience being in different departments? I heard wealth management section makes decent money and stress is low (compared to IB and Ops). Great hours but hell that's just what I hear. Same with compliance. Investment banking pay a lot but long hours and stressful life.
If you're already at a Bank...just ask your co-workers. If you're looking for a job or preparing to graduate...go with what lines up with your academic / internship background or go with whatever gets your foot in the door at your desired Bank and then try to navigate for a better position from within. wrbtrader
I did m&a IBD and s&t on the macro side and, I gotta say, the latter was so much for fun and enjoyable. IBD (investment banking division) hours are like 80-100/wk, while in S&T (sales & trading) it's closer to 50-70/wk. IBD was in large cubicle shared with 2-3 other analysts. S&T is on the trading floor -- open floor plan, traders on one side of the desk, sales on the other. In IBD 7am is "early", but most of the work doesn't happen (at the analyst level) until the afternoon, which is why you work late (normal to stay in past 11pm). S&T hours are market and product dependent -- if you cover Asian FX you are working all night but off during US hours, etc. Most people come in an hour or two before work. Sales people will leave whenever, but jr. staff (analysts and associates) will usually stay in for another 1-3 hours after markets close. Comp -- IBD pays more on average (base plus bonus that is 75%-200% of base), but if you are very good at trading or sales, you can hit 7 figures.
That's just the front end. Do you know about the less popular wall street departments? Compliance (AML/KYC/OPAC), Risk(that's a good one), wealth management, HR (jim), IT (HUGE), Product development, Back Office Operations, there is a slew of careers to chose from and I bet most of them don't fall into the wall street 50+ hours a week stereotype. I've worked in a few places where their IT staff dwarfed their banking department and everything else. I heard wealth management has it pretty good. Better than average pay, normal hours and the least stress outta all. My friend makes over 10k a month in compliance, I don't need 7 figures, I don't want the stress and long hours. Not everyone that goes to wall street is interested in the front revenue producing end. I'm sure I can troll more chicks if I had my own TV show Jim...
The problem with a lot of the back office stuff is that it is getting automated away. A big bank may only have like 10-15k front office staff, with 50-90k+ employees in the back office or branches (retail channel).
How would something like that work, you go fishing in the company pond while conducting a sensitivity and diversity manditory annual meeting, or the sexual harassment annual sensitivity training meeting? Probably work as well any anything else if it seemed to work for you in the women's studies major classes you trolled in college.
Dude, he has his own show, he can do whatever he wants. He's just giving bad advice to the rest of us. It's astonishing how many sexual harassment claims he can get away with. He's basically Neil deGrasse Tyson of investment. We're lucky to have a "celebrity" on this forum.