IBD/Junior Broker - advice appreciated

Stick to what you are doing. Times are rough right now, unless you think you have what it takes to be a rainmaker.

Barboon/UFO- I greatly appreciate the advice.

I guess it all boils down to a huge leap of faith here and in this current environment it’s more like trying to jump across the grand canyon… Not sure if either of you are from a BO role, but this definitely makes it hard in terms of the “back office -> FO” jump as these don’t come by too often

I wouldn’t say that I don’t think I will do well, I believe that with hard work etc.. etc.. I'll "make it" Big factor I see now is the 50-60% pay cut... that just seems unrealistic to take, added with year-end coming. Of course I’m not saying $$ means everything but that’s aggressive in terms of comp..

I'm a little confused... a FO position at a "top 5 IBD" would offer abot 100k total comp...am i missing something here?

I dont believe thats for a Junior position getting 100k off the clip. Correct me if im wrong here?

Industry standard: 70 base, 10-15 signing, and discretionary

IBD= inter-broker dealing in this case right?

yes at a inter broker dealer (think Tulett, bgc, gfi etc)

role is for a junior broker position; not an analyst or any type of “program”. Desk would be FX, EM/g10

i dont know actual commissions breakdown as this is a off the records talk currently

also, thanks all for the input on this.

I think you mean IDB - Interdealer broker, (ICAP, GFIG, tullet...)

Yeah, 100K off the bat seems highly unlikely considering the environment. That being said, if you have the chops, it could be a lot more interesting than MO stuff. The major question being, do you think you have what it takes? The eat-what-you-kill mentality there is completely different from MO/BO roles (and even FO roles in many cases).

yes correct. sorry typo

Goodbread - I agree with you it will definitely be more interesting and opportunity involved. A large issue I see if simply put the steep cut in salary along with job safety(that is a given) in this day and age and how the markets currently are. I definitely understand taking risk in terms of that, but fact is… 50% decrease or more in base salary is hard to swallow I think for anyone.

I was under the impression that junior guys at IDB usually get paid around the same as S&T analyst and as you advance it moves to a more eat-what-you-kill comp

Problem with IDB junior is there's no guarantee that you'll be placed...

Nemze, will you be able to take a temp 50% pay cut?

Also how agressive are you? If you want to succed in IDB you are going to have to be really aggresive. From what I read it is a really cut throat environment.

If you feel you can handle it, then go do it. You may not have this chance again.

I dont doubt that I cant cut it at all. I would consider myself a pretty aggressive person; even more so in a work enviroment. Although the 50-60% pay cut for x amt of time(x being uncertainty) is something that I find hard to stomach… maybe if I was a fresh college student living at home with zero to no bills/obligations. But I’m not, I live in NYC in a decent apt with a good amt of bills. I have money saved in terms of cushion but im not sure if its worth being on the balls of my ass. However many can argue that I’m young (23) with room to “mess up” and recover

These chances definitely don’t come by too often, especially in this market and like I’ve stated before. Also I will say I am grinding the stone to the “middle office to front office pipe line dream”

They're lowballing you. Ask for a better offer with some real upside.

PM me more about the situation and i can explain what you are up against.

Like what are they giving you? Will you be joining a team/group with existing accounts that need an extra body there to provide the coverage or are they giving you a bloomberg and saying "go make it happen". Unless you have an account that is going to pay you then you really are setting yourself up for a failure if you are not joining a team.