[hapaboii]

Don't mean to beat a dead horse but just saw this old thread and wanted to make a few comments.

Designations/degrees and their usefulness for institutional jobs:

CFA = equity research analyst, portfolio manager
MBA = institutional sales, overall networking value not really for trading
Quant PhD(CS, engineering, physics, stat, math,etc) = quant analyst, software/algorithm developer, could also be trader
MS MathFin/FinEng = quant analyst, derivatives structurer/trader

Prop trading at a prop firm:
Trading Method = usually scalping or spreading
You don't put up any capital, firm needs to teach you to actually be profitable so they invest time in you, might offer a salary/draw during training, profit splits vary(don't expect better than 50/50 at first). Note:: futures prop firms will also charge you a significant(2-6k) monthly desk fee

Prop trading at a bank:
Trading method = everything, fundamental prop desks doing low-frequency and quant prop desks doing high-frequency stuff.
Probably some opportunity for successful flow traders to lateral in-house to the prop desk. PhD quants will also find their way here, possibly from structuring, hedge funds, other banks, etc.

Market making at a bank or MM firm:
Trading Method = providing liquidity, managing risk
Level of knowledge will depend on what products you are making markets in.

Sales trader at bank:
Trading method = No method, just fill order over day and pray you beat VWAP or imp shortfall benchmark, if not get yelled at by buyside. Well, maybe they have a methodology, like asking the program desk how to mimic a VWAP algo.

Specialist at NYSE:
Trading method = Stop hunting, filling orders at bad prices to gain an edge and piss off daytraders, customer flow

Trading assistant at a bank or hedge fund:
Duties = excel monkey, position watcher, report generator, food delivery, getting yelled at, and if you're lucky you get to learn from a very successful trader

I'm tired and that's all that comes to mind for now.