Stay where I'm at or look for new options
Seriously need some guidance on this one. I've been working on a sales and trading desk for shy of a year and I wanted gauge what some of you would think to be a smart move.
Context:
I have been on an S&T desk for almost one year. I started and needed all my licenses, which I passed on the first try and within 90 days for all of them. After that, I was fully allowed to be trading.
I understand that life as a junior on a desk is rough. Low pay, most hours working, can't leave for holidays, errand boy, coffee runner, etc... Trust me, I know it sucks. I did sports all my life so I'm used to hazing and don't complain nor have issues with it (nice to actually take a quick walk and get eyes off the 6 monitors).
Day to Day:
So the day to day is pretty straight forward. I'm on the desk for 10-11hrs and I'm doing all the lower level stuff for the full traders. From what I was made to understand, is that as you go through the process of being a junior, you are being developed by the desk and building your own book and starting to trade with some autonomy. I have experienced the challenge of building a book of accounts. Especially when a large portion of the best accounts around are all covered by our traders. I recently got one account to start communicating with and building rapport, and they told me they would like to be coverage on that account because of my junior status. Each day, I am still doing all the junior tasks while reaching out to as many accounts as I can find to open them up and help do business with them. Most days are pretty much the same, but there is one manager that I believe means well but also can be extremely overbearing and bring down someone's confidence. The smallest of mistakes is met with hostility. I've had mistakes that others have made be 100% cast on me when I am not even able to access the systems required to make the mistakes. I've had back office staff even tell me I could not have made mistakes that I have been called (while at home after work) and berated and shamed for. Again, I understand it comes with the territory of being a junior on a desk.
Alongside this, I am not really receiving any real training to set myself up to generating anything to the PnL. over 50% of the desk is WFH and have their own group chats for trading that I only get a glimpse of when they message our full desk group with orders they have. So I feel like I'm spinning my wheels a bit. I try to be proactive and learn but there isn't much material that teaches how we do business and everyone is either at home or too busy for a lot of assistance.
Summary:
Been here a year. Sacrificed 2 months of exercise, social life, and mental health to crank out all my licensing exams asap. Still yet to be allowed to trade and told I'm too junior for accounts. Literally feel more like a coffee runner and errand boy than a trader. Don't know what the best next move would be.
So I really am curious to anyone reading this; is this timeline normal for someone's first year on a desk? Is there something else I could be doing to help me progress and develop on my own? Or would this be the time to start shopping myself around to other firms, possibly as an analyst at some buyside shop? It feels like I have stagnated in my growth and it's getting very difficult to afford even having this job due to low pay and very high cost of living (and I live extremely frugal).
Didn't want this to come across as pessimistic or seeking anyone's remorse. Just a genuine inquiry and wanting some outside opinions.
Thanks
