Can someone talk about the Analyst lifestyle in Sales? Are hours usually 7am-7pm, and are you able to actually have some degree of a social life? (vs. being in M&A, as I am now)
Just looking to see how junior guy's personal experiences have been, as I am considering a lateral from M&A to a sales desk.
Thanks in advance
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Pick up Frank partnoy's Fiasco, Liars poker if you have not yet. Those two books pretty much sum up the life style, also past posts have shown that yes a 7-7 schedule is about right. 7 Pm may even be a bit late..but as an analyst you might have to stay till then to wrap up some work the trader or salesman on your desk asked for.
Good luck. It has better pay, more satisfaction, and a better chance of moving up and fast if you work hard.
I am looking to make the lateral move as well from M&A (which is an awful lifestyle) to sales. I know my personality and ambition can take me much further than building excel models for deals that should never happen.
Weeds499 - how are you going about making this move?
If I were you, I'd stick out the 2 years go to a top MBA and then interview for Sales and trading associate jobs. Dont give up now, nothing comes easy.
Keep in mind that in Sales although your official hours could be from 7am to 7pm, you will also constantly be entertaining and going out with clients after work.
Totally depends on the desk.
In commodities, for instance, many desks combine sales and structuring so it's very possible to see sales guys work 7am-10pm, and 1 day per weekend. Especially in power...
which banks are like that?
I'm assuming you were responding to my post about commodities. If so, then I'm referring to GS, MS, and Barcap. JPM now also has a big commodities group, but no clue about that culture there. And I'm also talking about NYC, because I have no experience with Houston.
At the big commodities desks sales people typically roll in around 7am. Leave by 7pm if you're lucky, but often there till 8 or 9. Sometimes later.
On a desk like commodities market hours are irrelevant for sales and structuring, because 99% of what you do is OTC, and it's 100% derivatives. I've seen people spend 2-3 months working on a chunky deal for a client, and the last week of the deal pull 3 all-nighters.
But again, commodities is very different from the rest of S&T. During the summers all the summer analysts and associates would roll by the commodities desk starting at 7pm because all the other desks had gone home by then.....
Can someone break down the hours desk by desk ?
Typically, the first guys on the desk in the morning are the FX guys.
Arrival:
early birds FX arrives--5:30 am-6:30am
FX is closely followed by IR- 6:30am-7:00am
and then everyone else should be in around 7:30am
Departure
Because FX markets typically shut down once London goes offline, the FX guys can leave fairly early 4pm-5pm (junior guys typically hang around)
Everyone else will likely be after 5pm
As someone stated, structuring may stay well into the evening simply because their work doesn't necessarily revolve around market hours.
CD~
Excellent post/responses. Would love to hear more about day to day responsibilities. Would anyone recommend taking the CFA as a sales analyst? Does this help with potentially moving to buyside?
I've never seen salesmen around past 5 or 6pm at the latest.
+1
Depends on product and level of seniority. I've seen Swaptions analysts be around till 11 pm trying to sure up risk.
"I've seen Swaptions analysts be around till 11 pm trying to sure up risk. "
but that's not sales.
Very true, forgot we were talking about sales. I've seen sales in structured rates stay later... but not that late. Good catch.
TY. Sent you a pm.
Sales - How are hours and pay? (Originally Posted: 07/18/2010)
I'm curious what it's like working in Sales for an IB. What are the hours like? What's the pay like? What kind of tasks do you do? Etc.
Sales as in Sales & Trading? If so there are a ton of discussions on the Trading forum.
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