Say goodbye to the dream

[fish2plus2]

The only time I have up early is when im catching a plane and it just feels so horrible. Same as with rush hour in a major city. I dont know how they do it everyday.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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I'm currently considering working some standard finance job for the necessary 2-3 years 40 hours a week until I can get into business school and then becoming a professor. They have joke hours can potentially touch 200kish.

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Dude, the only difference between this and the first half of your post is ambition. That isn't to say that one is preferable to the other. Just that the essence of your plan is to burn a couple of years for a cozy life after.

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also, in general, b school professors have PHD's, not MBA's. and to be a professor at most top 50 MBA programs, you're looking at a Harvard/Stanford/really top Phd. cushy professor jobs that pay well are not easy to come by.

(and if you're talking about being an undergrad professor, much of the same applies)

Point being, I'm not sure the most desirable/awesome professor jobs are that much easier to attain than the best Wall St. jobs. oh and you better be willing to move to Indiana or Colorado or Tennessee

[DcifrThs]

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Barron,

" ideally, you smooth your consumption function over the your lifetime."

For a second there I was thinking you were gonna get through a whole post without anything like that!

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well you'd have been wrong now wouldn't you... after all this time, a shame you dont know me as well as i thought...

it's kinda like bifurcations in chaos theory...we know they happen with astounding regularity and predictability, but we can't, for the life of us, understand why or how they arise [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Barron

[fish2plus2]

Barron,

Did that BJ turn out to be as good as you imagined it would be? (oot thread)

[DcifrThs]

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Barron,

Did that BJ turn out to be as good as you imagined it would be? (oot thread)

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i like blackjack. and no, after taking some money off feming and mike in a 150/300 O8 3 handed game, i blew 1500 on BJ, it was everything id ever imagined it would be.

Barron

[Roadstar]

Congrats on the job opportunities. Since your majors weren't in finance, I suggest you talk to others in the industry.

You may already know this but an investment bank basically has 3 broad pillars:

1) Sales/Trading
2) Research
3) Investment Banking (or sometimes called Corporate Finance)

Make sure you understand how an i-bank works and what your career path would look like.

What type of trading will you be doing/want to be doing mostly? agency trading (trading for a client) or pro trading (pro = proprietary, i.e. trading with the firm's money)?

I'm in research but from what I see here are the pro's and con's of trading

pro's

1) great hours - when you said 6:30-6-8pm was serious hours i lol'ed! Go ask a guy in investment banking how much he/she works a week

2) less work "burden" - when markets are closed, there isn't that much you can do. Hence you don't end up worrying too much or have to catch up too much work afterhours. This is unlike research/i-banking.

3) environment of meritocracy - your performance/compensation is pretty much direct drive

con's

1) sometimes mechanical - esp with agency trading, you're executing orders. So a lot of the times you're reacting to news/trade flow. Some ppl find this not very intellectual stimulating

2) slightly narrower skill set - the traders' skill set is marginally less transferable than the other ibanking departments. You rarely do in depth analysis into securities.

3) career path - an ibank (i.e. morgan stanley) is generally known as "sell-side" work which means more hours and smoozing - can become a grind. Many eventually go to the buy side (hedge fund, mutual fund etc) or industry (corp exec). While buy-side firms have traders, its marginally harder to transfer into these fields compared to say research and investment banking.

PM if you have questions. Hope this helps

[ChipStorm]

Jason,

Thanks for your posts in HSNL. I'm a SSNL player, gradually moving up, and I've found your stuff entertaining, educational, and motivating (9-tabling and loving it!) Please keep posting.

You've made a great choice and are at the doorway to a potentially great career.

I worked at Goldman, in commodities. I'm sure the other two shops are excellent, but if GS makes you an offer, dive for it. Whatever you make there in your first year or two means nothing. The hours will certainly be insane for a while, and that also is nothing. As you and others have hit on, you'll be working with some of the brightest, hardest-working, most inspiring people you will ever meet, doing something that most of them actually love doing.

If you want the Goldman job, start by reading their Business Principles, from their web page; they really believe them. You're right that they will view you as a significant investment, and will not want to just cut you unless you give them a reason. If you apply the same focus you put into poker there, you'll flourish. You'll probably feel like you earned every penny they pay you -- there are no giveaways on Wall Street -- but you'll earn plenty.

Best of luck.

[tboss888]

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biomedical and electrical engineering... but i dont really like it and they like engineering degrees for trading.

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Do you not have any trading or finance experience? I am also graduating in May with a degree in engineering. What school did you go to and how did you get in with these firms?