What do I need to learn to get out of Operations? I'm one month in my career.
I'm one month in operations and I'm falling asleep at work; it's not intellectually stimulating. I recently graduated college with a finance degree and could not find a job for the life of me. A little nepotism landed me a job as an operations analyst in NYC, but I want out. I want to become a trader of some sort, but I don't know what to prepare in order to "re-brand" myself as someone who is capable of trading. Also, I don't know if I should work for a year and then look elsewhere, or if I should rigorously focus on getting out because I heard I'd be "branded" as an operations person which I fear.
Here's my plan of study in order to land a job as a trader or something (not in any particular order):
- Series 7, 63, 79
- Python Certificate
- Memorize Stigum's Money Markets
- Then, apply to prop firms or hedge funds or what not. I don't know...
Any thoughts on this? In which order should I do these things? When should I start applying elsewhere so I'm not stuck in Ops? I'm one month in as a recent college graduate. Please help me visualize some possible steps in which I could gtfo of Ops and into trading.
Thanks your time and responses everyone,
Altmen1, bummer your thread hasn't had a response yet. Maybe one of these threads could point you in the right direction:
More suggestions...
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
Depends on what you’re doing in operations. I was in operations and worked my way to trading. Took me few years to make that happen. So first are you sure you want to be a trader? If so, and I were in ops, I’d do so something in trade support. This way I learn the ins and outs of trade life cycle. This is very very helpful as a trader. Secondly, after you’ve mastered that look for a job as a trading assistant. And from there work your ass off. You can take SIE and python certification as you work through ops and TA role. Stigums.. are you interested in fixed income? Lot of different trading within fixed income. Narrow that down further and most importantly read, read, read!
Masters in Finance or MBA at a target is your best shot. Or absurd amounts of networking. Seen people go from Ops to FI at MS & other respectable BB's. Involved alot of hustle though (since almost everyone in ops is trying to lateral).
Ops to FI as in Ops to Fixed Income trading, right?
i would suggest trying to get a "trading assistant" role of some sort. The work is similar to operations (tho higher stress / time pressure), but you sit with the traders all day long, and they evaluate your intelligence...its essentially a year long interview (high stress, but you get paid). After a year, if they are impressed with you, then many trading desks will give you a shot as a junior trader.
another option is the IT / quant backdoor. if you learn to code, then you could get a job as a trading developer....and after a year of good work, some trading desks have taken developers as junior traders
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