[PoorRichBoy]

Hi All,

This is for a friend who is seeking a little advice.

He basically just finished his first week at a mid-sized broker in the regions and found it ridiculous. He worked usually from about 7.15am-5.30/45pm and taking only 20-30minutes for lunch. He has to wake up at 5am each day to get ready and reach work on time and then the travel back is long. Hence he spends about 13.5hours a day dedicated just to work - 67.5hours a week typically!

Due to the size of the business he is involved in most, if not all fo tasks - equity research on stocks the firm has an interest in, writing reports/articles to send out to clients on recommendations etc, equity dealing.trading, financial modelling/charts, equity sales/advisory to existing clients and other tasks. He will earn about £2.3k a month due to being in the regions. After tax/NI that is about £1.775k - which equates to about £6 an hour due to dedicating 67.5hours a week to just work!

He was thinking of going back to university and doing a MA/PHD and go into lecturing as that has a better work-life balance and the pay is decent too.

Much advice would be appreciated! He does enjoy elements of the work but the CEO/Managers are very demanding/rude..

[SubAtomic]

What firm has one employee doing all these? Equity research on stocks the firm has an interest in, writing reports/articles to send out to clients on recommendations etc, equity dealing.trading, financial modelling/charts, equity sales/advisory to existing customers.

Don't know if I could believe a firm would have a trader doing all this other stuff on top of trading, and surely your friend isn't trading proper in their first week, hard to believe. Must have a very very good track record to be allowed to trade from the off.

Maybe the firm are looking for the thing your friend has the aptitude for if anything and then your friend will go into that department.

[PoorRichBoy]

(Original post by SubAtomic)
What firm has one employee doing all these, equity research on stocks the firm has an interest in, writing reports/articles to send out to clients on recommendations etc, equity dealing.trading, financial modelling/charts, equity sales/advisory to existing clients.

Don't know if I could believe a firm would have a trader doing all this other stuff on top of trading.

Maybe the firm are looking for the thing your friend has the aptitude for if anything and then your friend will go into that department.

It's small time trading, it's a mid-sized firm that look after private clients. Trading is a small part - mainly the dough comes from investment trust the firm owns and hence those stocks within that fund are constantly monitored.

[SubAtomic]

(Original post by PoorRichBoy)
It's small time trading, it's a mid-sized firm that look after private clients. Trading is a small part - mainly the dough comes from investment trust the firm owns and hence those stocks within that fund are constantly monitored.

Trading small time for a firm isn't really that 'small time', considering the volatility of the markets, even an experienced trader could lose a small fortune quite quickly. Your friend must be in training, having someone watching over their every move.

Some people will do for free what your friend is doing for whatever it is you say, just to get the work experience.

But your friend does sound like the new bitch. Do not know if this is what all firms like this are like. Could imagine mistakes will be made with a heavy workload like you describe. Finance IMO needs people who would specialise in certain things and it is certainly no place for a Jack of all master of none.

[threeportdrift]

(Original post by PoorRichBoy)
Hi All,

This is for a friend who is seeking a little advice.

He basically just finished his first week at a mid-sized broker in the regions and found it ridiculous. He worked usually from about 7.15am-5.30/45pm and taking only 20-30minutes for lunch. He has to wake up at 5am each day to get ready and reach work on time and then the travel back is long. Hence he spends about 13.5hours a day dedicated just to work - 67.5hours a week typically!

Due to the size of the business he is involved in most, if not all fo tasks - equity research on stocks the firm has an interest in, writing reports/articles to send out to clients on recommendations etc, equity dealing.trading, financial modelling/charts, equity sales/advisory to existing clients and other tasks. He will earn about £2.3k a month due to being in the regions. After tax/NI that is about £1.775k - which equates to about £6 an hour due to dedicating 67.5hours a week to just work!

He was thinking of going back to university and doing a MA/PHD and go into lecturing as that has a better work-life balance and the pay is decent too.

Much advice would be appreciated! He does enjoy elements of the work but the CEO/Managers are very demanding/rude..

Welcome to the world of a professional career. What you describe is at the tougher end of the spectrum, but isn't that extreme and millions of people will have worse combinations than that. If your friend thinks that going back to uni, getting a PhD and a lecturing post is going to give a better work/life balance and more decent pay - oops! Tell them to do a little more homework on that plan!

He needs to get a grip and realise the necessity and value of building a career by putting in the hard yards at various stages, the start being one of them.

[kka25]

(Original post by threeportdrift)
Welcome to the world of a professional career.

>.<

My reaction above matched with what you said when I read the OP.

[Choo.choo]

(Original post by PoorRichBoy)
Hi All,
------

Tell him to stay in his current role.
In this day and age, and the current economic climate, jobs are hard to come by, and leaving a job to get better qualified to change to another industry is not a sensible move.
This might have been possible 10 or 15 years ago, but definitely not now.
Also tell your friend not to be sucked into teaching and thinking that it is a 9-5 job with lots of holidays: you work round the clock doing school/lecturing work, planning lessons, marking student's work, preparing for the next intake during the summer holidays.
I was thinking about a career in teaching, until someone told me what it involves.
Then you have to think about whether you are capable of standing up in front of a group of people everyday and talking, and 30 pairs of eyes on you. A lot of people find this aspect of teaching quite daunting.
Changing careers is not as easy nowadays.
Some industries have roles which draw on an entirely different range of skills than other industries. This is also a factor that your friend has to take into consideration.
What age is your friend?
This goal might be achievable, but it will take a little more than a Phd to achieve.

[ProStacker]

(Original post by PoorRichBoy)
He will earn about £2.3k a month due to being in the regions. After tax/NI that is about £1.775k - which equates to about £6 an hour due to dedicating 67.5hours a week to just work!

If you think for one minute that you count time awake not at work in calculating an hourly rate, you need to wake up and smell the coffee.

If your friend needs over 2 hrs to get up and get to work, he. needs to either get his life together and / or move closer. Long days - yes. But not beyond what I have worked in the past. Both of you need to toughen up a bit and work out what it is to work for a living.

[i_hate_teeth]

(Original post by PoorRichBoy)
Hi All,

This is for a friend who is seeking a little advice.

He basically just finished his first week at a mid-sized broker in the regions and found it ridiculous. He worked usually from about 7.15am-5.30/45pm and taking only 20-30minutes for lunch. He has to wake up at 5am each day to get ready and reach work on time and then the travel back is long. Hence he spends about 13.5hours a day dedicated just to work - 67.5hours a week typically!

Due to the size of the business he is involved in most, if not all fo tasks - equity research on stocks the firm has an interest in, writing reports/articles to send out to clients on recommendations etc, equity dealing.trading, financial modelling/charts, equity sales/advisory to existing clients and other tasks. He will earn about £2.3k a month due to being in the regions. After tax/NI that is about £1.775k - which equates to about £6 an hour due to dedicating 67.5hours a week to just work!

He was thinking of going back to university and doing a MA/PHD and go into lecturing as that has a better work-life balance and the pay is decent too.

Much advice would be appreciated! He does enjoy elements of the work but the CEO/Managers are very demanding/rude..

Your friend has a crap job -tell him to get over it - most on here would love to have a crap job when they graduate.

Tell him to learn from it, simply put - he personally doesn't know enough at this time to do any better.

[PoorRichBoy]

Thanks Guys, I told him to stick it out till about 24-25 and save capital. Then hopefully try something new.

[Choo.choo]

(Original post by PoorRichBoy)
Thanks Guys, I told him to stick it out till about 24-25 and save capital. Then hopefully try something new.

If your friend wants to change career, he needs to plan towards this goal over a number of years. He should start now if it is what he really wants to do.
He needs to work out what steps to take in order to achieve/reach those goals.

[Mos Def]

(Original post by Choo.choo)
Tell him to stay in his current role.
In this day and age, and the current economic climate, jobs are hard to come by, and leaving a job to get better qualified to change to another industry is not a sensible move.
This might have been possible 10 or 15 years ago, but definitely not now.
Also tell your friend not to be sucked into teaching and thinking that it is a 9-5 job with lots of holidays: you work round the clock doing school/lecturing work, planning lessons, marking student's work, preparing for the next intake during the summer holidays.
I was thinking about a career in teaching, until someone told me what it involves.
Then you have to think about whether you are capable of standing up in front of a group of people everyday and talking, and 30 pairs of eyes on you. A lot of people find this aspect of teaching quite daunting.
Changing careers is not as easy nowadays.
Some industries have roles which draw on an entirely different range of skills than other industries. This is also a factor that your friend has to take into consideration.
What age is your friend?
This goal might be achievable, but it will take a little more than a Phd to achieve.

Sure this may be true for some teachers, but with several I've seen its quite the opposite. Winging (maths) lessons becomes the norm, half arsed marking and only planning lessons before ofsted comes and even then the template is borrowed off colleagues...they have it so so much easier than most other professions, trust me I've seen it first hand. The old adage 'if you can do, if you can't, teach' truly makes sense!