Equity Fund Sales vs DCM - what's best for S&T ?
Hi there,
I have an offer from a big European investment bank for a long internship in their equity derivatives sales team. This position is not strictly in sales and trading, but sales of quantitative funds they distribute (similar to an asset management sales type of role). There is not much client interaction for the internship but it is supposed to be very market intense (research, learning about the assets) and it sits on the trading floor.
On the other hand, I am in the process with an american BB for an off-cycle DCM. Need to know whether I made it to the final round (good chances as the interview went well), and I am attracted by the debt side and the name. Not sure though how much you learn in DCM is actually relevant for S&T.
I either need to accept the first or wait and gamble on the second. Given that my interest is to work in Sales & Trading as my career ambition (fixed income), what do you guys think I should do?
I heard that DCM exit opps are quite bad so I am leaning towards the first; however as it is not a proper S&T internship I am not sue whether DCM could be a better fit to a future transfer to Fixed Income S&T, as you learn a great deal about bonds (do you?). Conversely, the first internship is on the trading floor so I think I could easily network and move to a proper S&T role later (maybe convert into a FT at the end), while DCM is still transaction and not market based.
Thank you for any advice you could give me.
TL; DR
Is an internship in equity derivatives fund sales better than DCM for pursuing a career in S&T (preferably fixed income) ?
Hey dr.minhaj.ahmad.khan, I swear if I had a silver banana for every lonely thread I posted too I'd be richer than @compbanker ...
Hope that helps.
Equity derivatives not DCM
Thanks - I guess I should disregard the higher salary for the future opps, but what about getting into DCM and then lateraling to a proper S&T role in fixed income? I thought the expertise gained with bonds could be an advantage. Also, the equity derivatives internship is more for fund sales rather than market making; would it still be transferable?
well being in S&T > not being in S&T that is the simple rationale. DCM won't help you at all for market making.
I'd say Equity sales. You are on the floor, interacting with traders, and the product you are going to sell is incredibly good for a future switch
Thanks - Can I ask you to elaborate a bit more on why the product is "incredibly good" ?
You can get experience in understanding non equity products that contains vanilla/exotics instruments thus being able to understand some aspects of the job that are very useful in trading. Moreover, given recents improvement in strategies adopted by quant fund of funds this can be a good card to play for the future
Thank you again. I enjoy looking at the macro side of things so eventually I'd be interested in bonds in the long run (even though I have no experience with either of them, so it may be once I start with equity I love it and end of story..)
How difficult do you think it will be to move from an asset class to another in S&T ? For Fixed Income S&T in particular, do you think it will be easier to move therefrom Equity Sales or DCM ?
Sorry for the late reply mate, Yep it happens to move from an asset class to another! I think that sometimes it could be even easier to lateral internally
Thanks for your reply all.
I agree with you, but I kinda have the weird feel in my heart that DCM would be better...when I did the interview I literally fell in love with the people and the culture there and I felt a real "fit", something which did not happen when I was interviewing for EQD. Salary is also much higher. I know this goes against all odds but I feel the actual quality of the internship will be better in DCM as I will have more dedicated training, while in EQD it'll be much more informal.
Ofc both would be good cause while it is true that S&T is dying I feel like EQD is something that will be difficult to automate. On the other hand, the DCM group at this bank is one of the strongest in the world (top 3) so that's also something to factor in (feel like prestige here would make up for the majority of exit opps as it's very well regarded). Also, when I got the offer for DCM I understood it would be easy in the future to move to LevFin.
At the end of the day, it really all comes to if I wanna be in S&T or more traditional banking, and that is something I need to figure out by myself.
TL; DR - Is DCM better cause maybe I can have a wider overview and then choose which area to go and specialize (either move to markets or levfin) rather than going straight into EQD? I know I mentioned I wanna go in S&T but I am having second thoughts so maybe it'd be better to keep other options open....
ideally..intern in DCM one summer...and something else the next summer
That's what I was thinking..use DCM to get my foot in the door, and then move to another area if I don't like it. From my understanding at this particular bank is quite common and DCM has strong relationship with LevFin as well.
Also if I get placed in sovereign I think it's easier to move to something like rates sales due to the macro focus?
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