I’ve been in Sales for about 5 years now, covering all kinds of different clients globally and at one point or another I’ve sold pretty much any product and any asset class the bank offers, from very vanilla to complex structured derivatives.
I don’t see much growth in my position, and I don’t see myself doing the exact same thing for another 40 years. The hours have gotten worse as teams have gotten leaner, and pay isn’t nearly enough to retire anytime soon, let alone in the next 25 years.
So, I want out. However, pretty much any job in finance, whether that’s at a corporate, asset manager, hedge fund, PE, requires IBD experience and sometimes trading experience.
Do I really have to start over as an IBD analyst for 2 years, or are there any other exit opportunities for folks in sales like myself?
Have you considered trading? Sidenote, do you think you would be as pigeonholed if you were a trader?
I have thought about it, but even trading still has rather limited exit opportunities and I would probably have to be in a seat for another 5 years before those opportunities start to materialize. Lots of PM positions require 5-10 years of trading experience.
Yes, I would be pigeon holed as a trader too. All I could do is trade at another bank, asset manager or hedge fund, although a lot of funds are asking for IBD experience rather than trading. It’s frustrating, because I get at least a couple of messages a week from headhunters for interesting positions, but they never lead to interviews because they all require IBD experience.
I'm sorry I can't help you. But I've seen this pop up a couple of times. What is IBD experience? Is it classic M&A? Because I don't see how making PPT slides would make you a suitable candidate for working in a HF.
IBD experience is the training that IB analysts go thru to analyze a company and compare to peer companies...generally for the purpose of doing M&A analysis...searching out targets for M&A...evaluating value and pricing for M&A.
Exactly. It’s not rocket science, and most of the models are easier than the structured derivative models I work with/I’ve built. Nothing an IBD analyst does is very complicated, yet companies love the experience.
Case in point: got a headhunter call today for a corp dev/strategy type of role at a company. Experience minimum 5 years in banking, salary: $400k area. Mentions at the end of the call M&A deal experience is required.
why don't you do an executive MBA (nights + weekends) and then apply to your own firms MBA associate program?
I can’t really afford a $150k-$200k executive MBA program. I already have an MSF and pay hasn’t been that great.
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