Mergers and Acquisitions vs Sales and Trading

Just want a few questions answered please:

What are the differences in working hours?

What are the differences in salary including bonuses?

What are the differences in career progression like?

And lastly what exit opportunities do both provide?

Thanks!

Just want a few questions answered please:

What are the differences in working hours?

What are the differences in salary including bonuses?

What are the differences in career progression like?

And lastly what exit opportunities do both provide?

Thanks!

Just want a few questions answered please:

What are the differences in working hours?

What are the differences in salary including bonuses?

What are the differences in career progression like?

And lastly what exit opportunities do both provide?

Thanks!

Ugh, Trapz99 being the good dude that he is has replied anyway..

But:

1. IBD is more 70-100+ hours a week with average of 70-85 as an analyst. Dropping down to 65-90, average of 70 as an associate, then not much more than 60-70 as a VP or above.

S&T in most non-complex markets is ~55-60 hours a week. Typically, 6/7am til 5:30pm to 6:30pm. More complex desks (structured products, exotics) could clock more than that think ~70-75 hours/week. S&T is more uniformly the same across every level of seniority

2. Average banker makes more than the average trader, best trader makes more than the best banker

3. Standard career progression at a bank

4. IBD: Corporate Development (internal M&A at a corporation), Corporate Strategy (internal consulting at a corporation), Private Equity, hedge funds (l/s equity, merger arb, event driven, activist etc), move to another bank, corporate finance at a corporation, startups, MBA, venture capital etc

Trading: Another bank in the same role, a hedge fund corresponding to the product they trade (commodities to commodities HF/physical commods house, FX/Rates to global macro, credit (CDS, MBS etc) to credit hedge fund) some form of money markets trader in corporate treasury of a corporations

Sales: Sales at another bank, investor relations at an HF, if you're lucky enough to cover HFs and network like hell, you could get a gig at a HF in either a PM or Analyst role, any old sales in a corporation

Research: (equity) Same as banking bar PE. (FICC) same as trading but in analyst roles rather than PM/Trader.




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Ugh, Trapz99 being the good dude that he is has replied anyway..

But:

1. IBD is more 70-100+ hours a week with average of 70-85 as an analyst. Dropping down to 65-90, average of 70 as an associate, then not much more than 60-70 as a VP or above.

S&T in most non-complex markets is ~55-60 hours a week. Typically, 6/7am til 5:30pm to 6:30pm. More complex desks (structured products, exotics) could clock more than that think ~70-75 hours/week. S&T is more uniformly the same across every level of seniority

2. Average banker makes more than the average trader, best trader makes more than the best banker

3. Standard career progression at a bank

4. IBD: Corporate Development (internal M&A at a corporation), Corporate Strategy (internal consulting at a corporation), Private Equity, hedge funds (l/s equity, merger arb, event driven, activist etc), move to another bank, corporate finance at a corporation, startups, MBA, venture capital etc

Trading: Another bank in the same role, a hedge fund corresponding to the product they trade (commodities to commodities HF/physical commods house, FX/Rates to global macro, credit (CDS, MBS etc) to credit hedge fund) some form of money markets trader in corporate treasury of a corporations

Sales: Sales at another bank, investor relations at an HF, if you're lucky enough to cover HFs and network like hell, you could get a gig at a HF in either a PM or Analyst role, any old sales in a corporation

Research: (equity) Same as banking bar PE. (FICC) same as trading but in analyst roles rather than PM/Trader.




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So can you do sales and trading then do an MBA and move over to M&A at associate level?

Yes

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Same for a MSc in Finance?

A post-experience one (ala LBS', yeah. Pre-experience MFins are for people recruiting into Analyst positions.

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A post-experience one (ala LBS', yeah. Pre-experience MFins are for people recruiting into Analyst positions.

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Just revisiting to ask a quick question; can a MSc in finance lead straight into private equity? If so what position would you start as? Thankssss

Lol no. An MSc is literally just a chance at applying for grad schemes again, so the same grad PE roles available to bachelors students - i.e. Blackstone, 3i and Terra Firma. There is no premium attached to an MSc.

PE requires IBD/top tier consulting experience for the vast majority of cases. Others sneak in through Big4 Audit -> Big4 CorpFin, but they are the minority.

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Not even a post experience one like the one from LBS?

I really like the sound of M&A. The market isn't all that exciting on it's own, in my opinion. Deals seem far more interesting, especially as you progress higher (implying PE>HF, probably). Would probably prefer that kind of work.

Both appeal to me tbh, S&T has the better hours but M&A has the better exits sooooo 😁

The hours difference isn't really that much and both areas have good exit opportunities. I would try maybe looking at the division that you actually find interesting???
Yes hours and exit opportunities are factors to be taken into consideration but if you are already worried about the hours and basing which area you want to work in by exit opportunities when you haven't even finished GCSEs, you probably wouldn't last very long imo.

Everyone keeps telling me I haven't finished my GCSEs 😂 I haveeeee and thanks for the advice

Both appeal to me tbh, S&T has the better hours but M&A has the better exits sooooo 😁