I Need Your Help...Industry and Status Classifications for WSO

Hey guys, so we are redoing the WSO user profiles (edit page) in order to make it more intuitive (all on 1 page, etc) as well as changing the sign up process so that at the very least, we can collect the "Industry" and "Status" (/title) fields from each user before signing up...this will help everyone in the forums have a better idea as to what level experience you are (are you a prospective monkey trying to break into IB or an MD in Private Equity?) since we can color code the status (green for interns, prospective monkey, and blue for 1st yr analysts with draker shades of blue as you get more senior)...we also currently have a 2 letter code for each industry for easy reference...

BUT, before we do this, we want to make sure we don't end up getting a bunch of "Other" selected...

Here are the selections we have for Industry right now:

Investment Banking
Private Equity
Venture Capital
Hedge Fund
Sales & Trading
Equity Research
Consulting
corporate finance
Asset Management
Real Estate
Entrepreneur
Investment Advisor
Corporate Development
Corporate Strategy
Prop Trading
Accounting
Other

What are we missing?? Should we be breaking these down more specifically?

Here are the selections we have for Status/Title right now:

Prospective Monkey
Intern
1st Year Analyst
2nd Year Analyst
3rd+ Year Analyst
1st Year Associate
2nd Year Associate
3rd+ Year Associate
Vice President
Managing Director
Manager
Partner
Business School
Retired
Recruiter
Portfolio Manager
Director
Other

What are we missing??

I want to try and expand this list to make sure we are getting 95% of the accurate titles of the users registering for WSO, so would really appreciate your help!

Thanks guys!
Patrick

 
Best Response

Industry: Middle Office Back Office

I'm aware WSO is front office centric but it does not apply to everyone on the site and a broader audience, the better the traffic.

I suppose you could break out Fixed Income versus Equities in most of the functions like AM, S&T, etc. You could also break out banking to how most banks do it, Capital Markets, Corporate Banking, Investment Banking, Treasury, Pub. Fin.

Starts to be a lot of options but you asked for it :)

Titles: Assistant Vice President Assistant Portfolio Manager

Both of these are pretty common.

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 

ok, great, exactly what i was looking for. So will add in Assistant titles, that's easy...a bit harder is how granular to get for the additional sub-categoried for Industry, .... but what do you think of these categories:

Asset Management - Equities Asset Management - Fixed Income Asset Management - Other (all above still just have "AM" code for next to usernames)

Sales & Trading - Equities Sales & Trading - Fixed Income Sales & Trading - Other (All above still keep "ST" code)

Investment Banking - M&A Investment Banking - Restructuring Investment Banking - ECM Investment Banking - DCM Investment Banking - Corporate Banking Investment Banking - Treasury Investment Banking - Public Finance (All above still keep "IB" code)

Not sure if "Middle Office" and "Back Office" fit anywhere here?

@planetbeing - we will also add in a "non-profit" category for Industry...also, what are thier titles? Teachers? We could add a title called "Professor" as well for members that work in academics.

Thoughts guys?

Thanks, Patrick

 

where this gets tough is there is some overlap...industry of "Investment Banking" technically includes Equity Research and a lot of S&T, but I'm fine breaking it out...

What about hedge funds, should we try to select what type? like Event Driven, Quant, etc?

@Anihilist - isn't "quant" more of a title rather than an industry? Titles determine color, not 2 letter code, so wouldnt be "Q" -- would likley be "HF" for Hedge fund and dark blue indicating they are a quant...

 

Yes, I was just trying to classify it within one of the appropriate denominations that you listed I guess. Sling Shot states it better than I did.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for freedom of thought which they seldom use.
 

@Wallstreetoasis.com Industry: Risk Management Legal (not sure how many lawyers are over here but figured if non-profit is going to be added, it made sense)

For the Quant designation, I would agree title makes more sense because you can have a quant at a multitude of those places. Considering the overlap, let me PM you how my bank breaks it out to maybe give you another idea of what you would want to do.

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 

For status/title, you might want to include 'Incoming Analyst' for the 9 months in b/w internship and 1st year analyst, as I imagine incoming analysts are a reasonably sized demographic.

Right now, I've labeled myself a 'prospective' monkey because I'm not working, but I've done numerous FO internships and I'll be going to a NYC BB FT this summer. I feel like I'm overstepping my bounds if I put 1st year analyst, but prospective monkey implies I have 0 experience, which isn't exactly true...

Also, for the IBD classifications, you hit all the main product groups (except maybe structured finance?), but many people (especially at BB's) are just in industry groups. I think its overkill to have IBD-HC, IBD-RE, IBD-O&G, etc. for every industry group, but having an IBD-Coverage or IBD-Industry classification might help identify people who don't work with just one product. And perhaps maybe IBD-generalist for those at say, a boutique, who span all products and industries?

My $0.02

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be”
 

I would strongly support nontargetPSD92's suggestion for "incoming analyst." Going through FT recruiting season and being able to secure an offer means you have a unique perspective on hiring and interview prep-especially for the current interviewing season.

"I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
 

Ok, thanks for your feedback guys -- here is an updated Industry List (note, all the two letter codes are not set up yet, so if you select a new one, the icon next to your name in the forums won't show up yet...title next):

Code "IB" Investment Banking - Mergers & Acquisitions Investment Banking - Generalist Investment Banking - Industry / Coverage Investment Banking - Restructuring Investment Banking - ECM Investment Banking - DCM Investment Banking - Corporate Banking Investment Banking - Treasury Investment Banking - Public Finance

"CB" Commercial Banking

"ER" Equity Research

"CO" Consulting

"PE" Private Equity - LBOs Private Equity - Growth Equity Private Equity - Other

"VC" Venture Capital

"HF" Hedge Fund - Event Driven Hedge Fund - Macro Hedge Fund - Equity Hedge Hedge Fund - Relative Value Hedge Fund - Other

"ST" Sales & Trading - Equities Sales & Trading - Fixed Income Sales & Trading - Other

"IA" Investment Advisor

"PT" Prop Trading

"CF" corporate finance

"CD" Corporate Development

"CS" Corporate Strategy

"AM" Asset Management - Equities Asset Management - Fixed Income Asset Management - Other

"RE" Real Estate - Commercial Real Estate - Residential Real Estate - Other

"AC" Accounting - Audit Accounting - Tax Accounting - Other

"NP" Non-profit

"RM" Risk Management

"L" Legal

"O" Other

Thoughts?

 

Updated Titles (again, if you select a new one, may take until next week to see the new icon and color next to your username):

Prospective Monkey Intern 1st Year Analyst 2nd Year Analyst 3rd+ Year Analyst 1st Year Associate 2nd Year Associate 3rd+ Year Associate Assistant Vice President Vice President Executive Vice President Principal Director Managing Director Manager General Manager Partner Business School Retired Recruiter Assistant Portfolio Manager Portfolio Manager COO CTO CFO CEO Quant Other

 

Also.....is there another way to become certified? I just realized I'm not a Certified User. I can definitely not send an email from work because my group's emails to external sites are 100% monitored.

U2, tax cert, copy of ID, I can give you pretty much anything but send an email

Get busy living
 

Jobs: Blogger/retired Pokemon trainer Marketing Product Management (thinking technology jobs, but not sure if this is the best name for it)

"For I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Bloody Mary full of vodka, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen."
 

Did anyone Mention having something like BB, MM, Boutique, F500 etc? Thats pretty important info as that guides the recruiting process as much or more than group, location, etc.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
happypantsmcgee:

Did anyone Mention having something like BB, MM, Boutique, F500 etc? Thats pretty important info as that guides the recruiting process as much or more than group, location, etc.

Good point. You could just roll this into the job type (e.g. investment banking - boutique m&a, investment banking - BB M&A, etc.)

"For I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Bloody Mary full of vodka, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen."
 

Probably is the more specific you get, the less anonymity. Some people on this site are a bit crazed about this.

@UFOinsider I connected with patrick on Linkedin and send him a message instead of doing an email.

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 

+1, definitely agree with this

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

Honestly, getting too specific with titles / company / year / position is going to lead to people speaking less freely because it will be far easier to pinpoint them. It's also really useful to know this stuff. Is there a way to reconcile this?

Example: if someone says M&A MM NYC 1st yr assoc, and drops even one hint of anything they've worked on, it would be very easy to triangulate this with other posts and narrow them down to a handful of people. Not so much a threat from other WSO users (although one does come to mind) but god forbid their boss turns out to be the person they've been debating. As much as you want to narrow the bandwidth of 'respectable' conversation, the fact is that being able to really speak one's mind and connect on that basis is vital to the long term differentiation of WSO from every other crap forum. This kind of thing could kill WSO, or at the very least lead to a chilling effect on open dialogue. If someone really wants to get to know a M&A person at XYZ firm....that's what linkedin is for.

And what's to say that any of the posted titles are even true? Certified User is the only indication of actually even working in industry, but beyond recognizing that someone works in industry, pretty much all of us prefer to be anonymous in most cases. If you've run through this line of reasoning, then great, but I felt it needed to be bought up.

Just trying to help by thinking ahead, huge fan of the site

Get busy living
 

People can always not fill everything out.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 
UFOinsider:

Honestly, getting too specific with titles / company / year / position is going to lead to people speaking less freely because it will be far easier to pinpoint them.

Totally agree. For instance, if I had "CEO" at "Major BB", you'd be able to tell pretty easily who I was. (or just by my username, so it obviously doesn't bother me) But, imagine you had a VP in DCM in Minneapolis. There are only so many people who it could be. Maybe just give people the option to just say 'Investment Banking' and leave the size of firm or location anonymous. I think anonymity is very valuable for a lot of people on WSO.
 

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