Feeling unfulfilled in sales

"YoungDumbFullOfRum" Providing your listed title as a second year analyst is indeed correct, I think you're getting ahead of yourself - I think you can give a little more time and energy to your current role before you start looking at trading / research roles elsewhere. There's certainly no need to lose heart early doors.

Firstly, you're still an analyst. I think you're putting too much pressure on yourself to be covering clients across multiple markets and still expect to have a number of relevant, fully formed, insightful trade ideas to hand at the drop of a hat whenever a CP asks. This is something that will come with time: narrow your focus for the time being and try to come up with just one or two really solid trade ideas per week. Talk with the traders, get their advice and feedback, and communicate with them on a regular basis to see what they're looking at and how it can be of use to you / your clients. Sure, your ideas may not be pertinent to every client you cover, but you only need it to align with one client's interests for you to be providing immediate value-add. Use this as a stepping stone to widen your perspective as you become more adept and competent, etc.

Secondly - and I don't mean this to come across as a dig - you allege that you're "too busy". I can appreciate that this may well be the case during the day when markets are active and, as you mention, you're juggling the concerns of multiple clients at a single time. However, are you putting in the time after hours? Yes, it's a pain, but this can prove hugely valuable in terms of not only giving you the space to conduct your own analysis / research, but also to digest what exactly happened that day and how you think that may impact market movements the next. Likewise, are you getting in early? As soon as you wake up, are you reading the news to see if there are any new developments and then thinking about what they mean to your markets / clients when you're shower five minutes later? I presume you have BBG, so likely also BBG Anywhere - read Bloomberg Daybreak and get those wheels turning as soon as you can. You'll be surprised how much additional value you can get out of these tweaks to your routine.

Finally, put yourself out there to your superiors. Once you've started coming up with, in your view, one or two solid trade ideas per week, mentioned them to your head of desk. Yes, they'll challenge you, and yes, this will be uncomfortable, but it will make you better and keep you on your toes. I can guarantee the feeling of being a well-paid mouthpiece / brain-dead monkey will quickly leave you and you'll start enjoying work a lot more.

Good luck to you, mate.

This is a great post. +SB

OP - I'll give you my thoughts from my personal HF/Buy Side perspective.

Many clients just want you/the desk to move paper at the best/competitive price. "Ideas" are often code for "flow" or "what's going on." The thinking (at least in my products) was "if it's a really good idea, the desk, if it's smart, probably has it on - why would they tell us unless they had to cut a position or get rid of it?" (for whatever reason).

Your feeling of being bored and unfulfilled isn't rare in many spaces in this industry, even early on. Trading/managing a book is great because you have risk on and things are always moving but it can also be exhausting since you have to be on point (kind of) all the time. I know plenty of guys who got bored of it and felt the same way you do. Ditto sales coverage I have had, ditto my first gig in the business, which was not trading. Ditto some friends in banking etc.

This business is not that complicated at its core. Once you understand the products and the people what you are feeling is not uncommon and it's evident that most people just do it for the money. And that's fine. I am sure you have already seen plenty of people you don't find that intelligent, or incisive, but are in high positions and have been on the desk for a while. It's because they are good at what they do, or clients like them, or they move paper or they have support somewhere politically or some or all of the above.

Like the poster above says, try to get in earlier/stay later, just to learn more about the product, the markets etc. How is your relationship with research and trading? If your answer isn't "really good" try to work on that. Then ask to learn about what they do.. Buy them beers, coffee, bring them lunch just to talk the product, markets, clients, how the book is managed etc so you can think strategically and understand how your desk things and your clients think (because often they don't think together and you are the middle man who has to please everyone because your desk needs PnL and you need sales credits and for clients to like you). It also may be a good idea to build relationships across the floor with other products/teams and bosses.

All of this is not just to learn more but it's to build relationships. So when you have some good relationships and knowledge, you can be the first one to jump into that trading/research/etc seat when someone leaves/gets canned. You can get a good intro to clients or others from colleagues when cuts come or you want to move on (and they will see you as a potential client $$$).

Good Luck