som1

Hello,
I was wondering what other careers i can pursue with a degree in finance other than inveesment banking. I mean sure its kool and all but the idea of a 80-100 hour week doesnt sound to appealing to me. (eventhough you get hefty bonuses for working that much).

Thanks

neutralnuke

you could look into trading
or maybe work for a company's finance dept.

nauru

Traders are paid the same base salary, work far fewer hours and have potential for much higher bonuses than bankers. Markets aren't open on weekends, so traders don't work on weekends. The bankers I know seem to always be working weekends. They wish they'd tried for S+T.

quag_mire

you could work as a trader/research analyst/quant analyst for a hedge fund...they are pretty well paid too....if you're a fund manager for a large hedge fund, you will probably have high bonuses because regardless of whether or not your fund makes profit, your clients will still be charged a management fee, which is a significant source of revenue

nauru

Yep. All of the above-mentioned jobs are generally better paid than investment banking.

VectorWega

The completely biased responses on this thread are laughable. Feel free to tell the whole story. A non-reply would have been more informative than this one-sided rhetoric.

CollectivSynergy

There's a huge array of different careers out there in finance. Wealth Management, Auditing, Consulting, S&T, M&A, etc etc. To those who seem to think S&T is amazing - it's not. I know many people who want the heck out of there. Your salary is very low, and almost your entire compensation is the bonus, so your income can vary wildly. Also, traders suffer from the same burn-out issues as IBankers.

Maybe you work fewer hours on average, but it's high stress 8:30AM - 8:00PM every day (if you're a pre and post-market trader), and 9:30-4:00 minimum. You also have to document every trade you make, definitely not glamorous. And if you get shunted into trading on another exchange? Forget your social life as your working hours are 10PM-6AM or worse.

openingdoors

CollectivSynergy, not to call you out bud, but if you consider "auditing and consulting" careers in finance, you really have no clue what you're talking about. Sorry.

Myth #2:
False. S&T is a function within an investment bank; therefore, analysts in S&T get paid street. What you're referring to is at a prop shop like Jane Street where there is no salary at all and your comp is performance-based.

kmzizzle

u guys say just work at a hedge fund like its easy to do/get into

-Lurker-

Many of the other jobs you guys listed here are harder to get than IB guys ...

CollectivSynergy

openingdoors - You must be joking. First of all - consulting and auditing are absolutely careers you can get into with a degree in finance. That is pure fact. Which is what the OP was asking for. Now, if you're trying to be snooty here, yes I suppose you can consider auditing and consulting not finance in the form most people think about it, but that's nitpicking. It's a career path that a finance major can enter. Period. I'll reword my first sentence if it'll make you happy: "There's a huge array of different careers out there you can pursue with a degree in finance."

Also, I have no idea where you're getting your information on Sales and Trading from. The word that invalidates your entire post is "analysts." S&T consists of brokers and traders. It is indeed a function inside an investment bank in that they execute orders from up top. But otherwise you seem lost - their pay is almost entirely performance based, from betting on the market. Case in point: Kerviel.

Please don't come on this board pretending to be some great lexicon of knowledge. There's plenty of things I don't know, too, it's just I don't waste my time spewing them as fact. And try not to act knowledgeable by using slang such as "paid street," which I'm not sure even exists but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt (very little). See, I admit it when I haven't heard of something, you should try the same.

nauru

^Being paid "street" means being paid the going base salary for analysts working on Wall Street. Openingdoors used the expression correctly.

Openingdoors is also right when he calls entry level people in S&T "analysts." This is their title. It is the title within the official firm hierarchy, it is what appears on their business cards and it is what appears on the employment contract. There is far more to S&T than just "brokers and traders." There are structurers, strategists, sometimes researchers, sometimes quants, and sometimes others.

In investment banks, traders' pay is not entirely performance based. They get a base salary (higher than the vast majority fresh university graduates) which constitutes a large proportion of total compensation at the lower ranks, with that proportion diminishing at more senior ranks (where base salary is considerably higher, but bonuses are usually much, much bigger).

You seem to be confused. Openingdoors appears to have a better handle on the subject at hand than you do.

som1

Thank you very much for answering my question everyone , no need to start arguing over it though ;p

openingdoors

CollectivSynergy, I don't know why you're getting your panties twisted, but if my relaying the truth on careers in finance and S&T offends you, I apologize. The matter at hand still stands, though: you have no idea what you're talking about. I never claimed to be a "lexicon of knowledge" (redundancy there...) nor am I trying to "act knowledgeable" by using diction that actually exists. Your reference to Kerviel, on the other hand, is not only irrelevant to the post at hand, it does very little to salvage any evidence of "IB know-how" that you may have had when you came across as an ignorant high schooler a la your erroneous post.

C-Revs

Just for the OP's knowledge, trading within an Investment Bank is not just stockbroking nor is it simply taking proprietary positions, there are many different functions depending on the product, how much flow there is, and how thickly/thinly the market is traded. There is tons of differences in the work of a Stock Options trader, a Forex Trader, a Agri trader and CDS trader. If it seems interesting, I can explain a little more.