Societal value of sales and trading?
So intern in S&T. I choose this path initially because with wanted to learn more about the markets. Beyond that however I fail to understand why people like the role so much. Yes it’s nice to have work life balance. Your role doesn’t even change much as you get more senior. But I fail to see how S&T benefits society and helps people beyond hedge funds. At least banking advises companies that ultimately help people and at the very least you can exit into something else. For S&T it feels like you’re just moving money back and forth between hedge funds. All the relationships are transactional. At the end of the day hedge funds and financial markets aren’t things everyday people care about unless the markets crashing. Also it seems hard to pivot into anything else unless you leave a couple years into your career.
I think you have a rose colored view on banking. Most of our clients don't actually help people or benefit society. That sort of thing always rank below maximizing shareholder value. Fiduciary duty is a thing, being altruistic when you have shareholders to answer to is not.
If you want to be somewhere that benefits society, unfortunately finance is likely not the way.
I think physical commodity trading is a pretty clear value add. You are literally moving goods from the places that have them to the places that need them. Imagine if there were no traders trying to source every molecule of nat gas available and ship it to Europe right now. The energy situation in the EU would be much worse than it is
agreed. Commodities the most value add in trading. Equities is the absolute WOAT
You could view it as helping people save money for retirement or other life goals, or even just adding liquidity to society, by facilitating the easy trade of goods and money
I think helping people save money and investing it properly is more asset management. As a trader or salesperson you work with them but you mostly just execute trades and maybe once in a while pitch an idea they agree to
S&T has very minimal society value lol, your view is way too naive. FYI almost everyone I know who did S&T out of undergrad no longer does it. S&T does not have a future anymore aside from hardcore quants which I assume you're not
Yes I know I was naive. Any suggestions for other career paths in finance or other fields? I don’t mind more schooling if it means I like my job more.
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