Confused - Junior majoring in finance

Hi everyone,

I am relativley new to this site. I am a junior majoring in finance. I originally came to this site for looking for the answer to a particular question. Though after browsing threw the "search" menu for quite a while looking for the answer I continue to come up with the same conflicting answer.

Before I get to my quest ion though let me just start off with this. I love trading. Im not sure what it is about it. I love the fast paced environment and even crave the rush I get from setting up and executing a good trade. I have even averaged about 35% gains over my past three years of trading which I am told is pretty good.

However, as much as I love trading, I HATE the idea of being a banker. Having the job of pushing paper around and creating excel models for 13 hours a day is on about the same level as being a Siberian salt miner.

This is what brings me onto the question. I have had the dream of prop trading (Not a Quant) for a hedge fund since I began trading a few years back . I have always felt like the top, most intelligent guys were gravitated to working these funds.

Where the confusion comes in is where I would begin if I were to get a job at a fund in the future?

I read that some guys start off as "junior analysts" while others start off as "junior traders". Though what the difference is between the two jobs has become confusing since some of the time they seem to take on the exact same rule. The only conclusion I can come up with is that all of these titles are meaningless which I am fine with.

What I am not fine with though is taking a position as some junior assistant trader but then ending up for four or five years being stuffed behind a cubical or hours on end analyzing stocks and looking for inefficiencies in some other senior trader's strategy.

So after all that what I basically want to know is will I end up being forced to push papers around for four years before I even get a chance to do what I really have dreamed of doing OR is there truly a difference in the titles given to the lower ranks and I will be given a chance to trade with real money after shadowing a another traders for a few months.

Sorry if this is a little long and I do realize I sort of ended up going on a rant but I would really appreciate it if anyone with at least a semi straight answer to the question would be willing to help me out.

Thanks