Help: Exotics Sales Associate at BNP/SocGen v Summer Analyst at GS IM
hey everyone, asking a quick question for a friend:
She has 2 summer offers - one at a pretty well-known European bank (think BNP Paribas, SocGen, the equivalent) as exotics sales associate. Another as summer analyst in GS IM.
Her dilemma: really, really likes the people on the sales team that she met in interviews, but is not sure if she will be good on a trading desk environment & the bank's not exactly GS/MS/JPM. On the plus side, it's an associate position, which is honestly quite a lucky break (i.e. no worries about future MBA, higher starting $...), and apparently some higher-ups on the group really like her too.
On the other hand, the group @ GS is pretty quant and that's not exactly what she wants to do, though she's qualified to handle it. Also it's an analyst position, though she quite likes the group/culture. GS is also not entirely known for it's FT conversion ratio, while the other place has indicated that they're shooting for a high conversion rate. Then again, people are telling her that the GS name on her resume will get her pretty much any interview come FT recruiting.
Totally unrelated but quite interesting point: her parents REALLY want her to go to GS, for the "prestige".
Any advice for her would be much appreciated!
do not go for prestige man. The other offer sounds alot of better.
I think the 1st one sounds a lot better.
Someone correct me, I am probably wrong, but doesn't everyone in sales start out as an "associate"? I mean I have never heard of a sales "analyst". I think the associate in sales associate is very different than the analyst-->associate-->VP people think about. Sales associate = IB Analyst ?
Never do something because of prestige alone. Her parents will get over it.
sales starts as associate, so she's still on the bottom of the totem pole there. and it'll take her a good 2 yrs at least to get to VP. minimum.
i'd take the GS offer. the branding on her resume would be great. also the exit ops would be better than the sales job, since you're in IM already, which is much harder to get into than a sales job. plus GS IM -> HF or something of similar prestige is much better than trying to do sales -> anything other than S&T.
Haha thanks guys. I'll forward her this link. Was shocked when I found out yesterday chatting to her on IM that she never heard of WSO.
I've met analyst sales people at networking events, though I'm into banking myself so i haven't talked to that many s&t people. maybe some banks have them and some don't?
as a quick clarification the sales position is paying quite a bit more, though probably not as much as IB associate. She also said that in interviews everyone she met at sales was an MBA, while at IM it was all sophs with a couple of juniors + master's degrees thrown in.
For the first role, I imagine she would be selling exotic derivatives to various hedge fund clients. I wasn't aware that goldman IM was quantitative.
My advice would be to take the goldman job; prestige matters in this business.
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