Trading Position at French Bank vs. Audit at Big 4 [Europe]

Hello everyone, coming out of a Masters in Finance at a top 15 European School, I am working as a Trading Assistant at a major French bank in the equities division in Portugal. This role really sets me up to transition (in a couple of years) to a more senior role in London, Paris or any other trading floor in the US or in Asia. I really enjoy the job as it is extremely quantitative and the team is amazing. Pay is not really great now, but again, if you manage to transition to London, Paris or any other trading floor in the US/Asia, pay is going up 5 fold. Having said this, I also have one offer of a Big 4 company in Central Europe, in Financial Services Audit, where the pay is 3 times what I am getting now, but definitely not comparable to what is possible to get at a trading floor in London or Paris.


Pay numbers look something as follows (please correct me if I am wrong):


Trading Route

  1. Trading Assistant (during 3 years) - yearly salary with bonus -> 25k - 35k

  2. Junior Trader (during 1-2 years) - yearly salary with bonus -> 50k - 70k

  3. Trader (after 5 -7 years in the company) - yearly salary with bonus -> 90k - 120k


Audit Route

  1. Junior auditor (during 2 years) - yearly salary with bonus -> 40k - 50k

  2. Senior Auditor (during 2 years) - yearly salary with bonus -> 50k - 60k

  3. Manager (after 3 - 4 years) - yearly salary with bonus -> 60k - 70k


On this note, I do not only look at the numbers, but also to the actual job, and the positive and negative points of each one:


1. Carrer in trading:

Positive Points

a. Job highly quantitative (you are unique in what you will do, to the point where you become almost irreplaceable)

b. You code a lot, which is a skill you can bring to any job/project you will do in the future

c. Was the job I envisioned when I started university 5 years ago

d. The team is really, really, really great. All super smart and very helpful for you to rise up

e. You are surrounded by extremely smart people in the quantitative spectrum (from software engineers to traders with 20 years of experience)

f. The pay in the long run while outpace any pay you can get at a big 4 (after 3 - 5 years you already passed any Big 4 bloke)

Negative Points

a. Now I am working in Lisbon, so I would need to do so for 2 - 3 years

b. Pay in those 2 - 3 years not so good


2. Carrer in Audit 

Positive Points

a. Work with different companies which helps you learn a lot about the financials of those companies

b. Network with different stakeholders, from clients to top management very easily as structure is somewhat mixed, which allows these connections

c. Can easily horizontally move to M&A or Advisory after a couple of years in Audit (I believe? Here correct me if I am mistaken)

d. Related to other points, if I want to start my own small-mid company in the medium future (5-7 years) I will have a better bag of knowledge to do so, compared to the one I would have if I stick with Trading.

Negative Points

a. Audit is not really something I like - I started the master to work in Global Markets (Trading specifically)

b. Auditors are not seen with good eyes to the clients, and that can really suck in the long term, which is not good more job morale and motivation

c. Pay will definitely be bellow to the one I would get in Trading


Definitely one of my long term goals would be to start my own small-medium company in Europe, specially in Eastern Europe, where I come from. So also taking this fact/goal into account, it would be amazing if you could shed a light on what path you would choose here, and why! 


Thank you very much! 


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