Working in structured finance groups (like Structured Credit Trading, CDO Securitization at Goldman) was probably one of the most lucrative IB positions pre-crisis at the junior and senior levels (idk if still true). I'm hoping this can be a small Structured Finance Thread. Most people on WSO are corporate finance monkeys and it's extremely rare to find recent grads going into structured finance (I don't think I have even seen one on linkedin). I've always been really curious about structured finance but all i hear is M&A, M&A, and M&A. If you are part of the rare breed of structured monkeys, can you talk a bit about what exactly you do, your background, and current prospects of this sector. Even if u are not one but have insights on structured finance, please reply and offer up some knowledge.
Thank you!
comp - similar to IB at junior level, maybe a 10-15% (bonus) haircut. analyst salary is the same, associate base is 25k lower at each level.
exit opps - depends on role, but have seen people moving to ABS focused hedge funds
future prospects - depends on vertical within structured finance but seems fine. many securitization marks are mature now. as mentioned elsewhere you are seeing more esoteric deals coming to market.
background - nothing specific from what I notice. just has to deal more with interest/placement. i've seen people go to M&A and people coming to structured finance from coverage groups.
Working in structured finance
Hours: 60-70hrs avg Deal Flow: A lot of recurring issuances Thoughts on Industry: Starting to bring back a lot of experimental stuff that loss popularity post 07