Senior traders at investment banks?

Question about how learning opportunities across banks differ with the number of senior traders Is it better to be at a bank with a lot of senior / expert traders who you can learn a lot from (but might take a while for you to get your own book / increase in responsibility)? Or is it better if there is a lack of senior traders so you can run your own book and take risk earlier (but without much mentorship)? Or is it somewhere in between? Please let me know your thoughts sell side people, thanks for your time.

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It really depends, and the tenure of the traders is not really a great way to judge how quickly you can get responsibility/how much you will learn as a junior person.  The goal of any analyst is move to associate and get their own book.  The best way to tell if a firm or desk is going to develop you into that role is to look at the history of past analysts that have sat on that desk.  A firm/desk that heavily skews older and most of its people did not come through the analyst program tends not to be a very good place for junior people.  They are just using the junior people for the labor and for whatever reason can never find a way for that junior person to move to the next step.  

 

What would you recommend a first year analyst who is on a desk like this do? I am on a very well regarded desk currently but they almost never promote to the next level, and I am not sure what to do.

 

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