When Should You expect to start trading?

Considering joining a sell side desk as a desk quant, where I believe I will be building pricers and other tools for traders. From what I can tell, the onus will be on me to learn how the desk trades and in general the finance side of the business. From talking with a few people, it seems most have to wait at least 4 years to get a trading seat. Is this standard for the industry? I see some people on here getting a trading book as an associate (so ~2 years in), or in general just seem closer to actual trading activities.  Is building pricers and other more dev type work what most analysts do, or is this just my particular situation?

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