BB sales or HF analyst?

Hey Monkeys,

I'm trying to choose a career path, I have opportunities in credit sales at a BB in NYC and an analyst role at a $2B AUM macro fund in a smaller east coast city. Not quite sure exactly if I'll be doing more research or trading at the fund, but it's been getting stellar returns for the past 5 years. On the other hand, I love NYC and wouldn't mind being in sales. Which offers bigger upside, lifestyle advantages, and career advancement opportunities?

Thanks in advance.

 
Best Response

Upside advantage clearly goes with the Macro HF (assuming you would be working directly for a PM, learning how to manage risk, come up with trade ideas etc). Lifestyle advantages are probably with the credit sales guys; you don't own a P&L and won't wake up in the middle of the night to check your bloomberg. You will take clients out to dinner and sporting events. Career advancement depends on performance once you are in the job, so that is not really something someone could tell you. IMO this comes down to personality fit. Do you like building and managing relationships? Do you like telling and selling very micro stories about specific credits? Then take the sales job. If you want to know how interest rates, currencies, and commodities all are interconnected worldwide and want to learn how to profit from that, then go for the macro fund.

 

Macro fund.

[quote]The HBS guys have MAD SWAGGER. They frequently wear their class jackets to boston bars, strutting and acting like they own the joint. They just ooze success, confidence, swagger, basically attributes of alpha males.[/quote]
 

Props on the two offers OP. I'd say the decision pretty much lies with what kind of skills you want to learn and where you'll think you will be more comfortable. If you're more interested in understanding the markets and developing trading strategies, definitely go with the macro fund - it depends on the fund, but most likely you'll learn a lot fast. If you take the credit sales job, you'll learn one of the most invaluable skills on the planet - how to schmooze people and persuade them into buying things. And that isn't too shabby either.

 

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