Ops on S&T career path?
I recently gained a lot of interest in an IB career, so I've been meeting people in the industry. A close acquaintance of the family is an S&T Associate at a BB and I didn't really know much about S&T until I met him.
It sounds like paradise? You come into work when the market opens and leave when the market closes (of course you stay to do extra work and etc.) but it seems like you don't get worked around into 2am like the M&A people and you retain your weekends (majority of the time, says the family friend). The kind of work S&T does sounds more exciting as you're taking part in the real live action of the market!
I was wondering how WSO knowledgeable here ended up in S&T and would you recommend this path compared to the traditional IB path?
shhh… don’t tell this to the powerpoint monkeys
It's not the same skillset at all. Like almost zero overlap.
The only common point is you are working in the same building.
So bottom line is figure out what you like / are good at.
If you just like money and somehow can do anything then S&T is more darwinian and variance is higher. So if you are very good you'll get paid same/more than IB after VP+ with reasonable hours.
If you are bad you'll get way less. If you are average you'll get less than IB.
I think the salient issue in my quest for finding the "right job" has been the exposure and accessibility in getting to the stage of figuring/finding out what I'm good at. How do I figure out if I'm good at S&T vs M&A work? As you say, they are very different jobs. My family friend (the S&T Assoc. at the BB) says big banks rarely allow entry level graduates to work in different seats compared to an entering BigLaw lawyer. (I believe in BigLaw, associates are invited to circulate through the various seats before settling on their best fit?)
So, my question is how do I find out if S&T is the right kind of thing for me?
If you have a passion for markets, want to be on Bloomberg all day, Fed watch, align less power points, value WLB, etc. Its a difference of working to 6pm vs 2 am lmao.
I think you’re right when you say it’s a no brainer but I’m biased. Exit ops obviously much more limited especially if you want to get to the buy side.
How about HF exits if you are an s&t trader? What are the best desks?
just depends what you like to do. most people that do IB don't actual end up doing IB in the long term. Most people are out after 2 years. A lot of them end up some strategy role at some F500 company. IB has much wider exit ops than S&T but they're different fields.
Do you reckon just "grinning and bearing" M&A work for a few years and exiting might be worthwhile?
Seems you reading past people. Did any of what the other poster say about S&T sound like F500 strategy work?
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