Exit Options for Sales People

If you're good... it may, but it is improbable. I'm not sure if it is general among students or this forum, but people seem to overestimate the probability of getting into the buyside at the highest level.

good advice- this is so true, too many a level a's go to their heads.. *shakes fist* at easier A levels and graphical calculators in exams..

OP youve got an excellent opportunity in sales (esp in current climate). so many ppl seem to be aiming for trading at IB which is unobtainable if u arent truly exceptional academically or are very well connected, (or ethnic or female or both although it really shouldnt matter damn positive discrimination) and besides after ur internship u may find that rose tinted view u have of a trading job isnt all its cracked up to be.

if u do well in sales im sure u wont have trouble sales trading but i dont know specifically about IB i only have commercial bank experience which is no where near as competitive

Can I just ask - how did you come to the conclusion that now is an excellent climate in sales?

I disagree with it being an excellent climate in sales. The job is getting increasingly marginal as institutions increase their take up of direct market access (DMA) software.

I've tended to find that simulators suffer from not being able to simulate certain crucial factors - like the fact that the market is full of other intelligent people who want to take your money, which is quite an important one. I also find that they are very poor at replicating the kind of dynamics surrounding unusual events or providing you an immersive market environment.

If you're good... it may, but it is improbable. I'm not sure if it is general among students or this forum, but people seem to overestimate the probability of getting into the buyside at the highest level.

I was always sceptical about the need for salespeople when software can do everything, but personal client relationships are extremely valuable. Say in equities, however automated research, high conviction ideas, IPOs etc gets, there will always be salespeople speaking to PMs.A problem with simulators is many will provide at-present touch pricing, when in reality if you're buying €1m+ of something it may take hours and the price may greatly move against you in that time.Definitely disagree. Fred, I wouldn't worry, literally every single person I know who has left sales moved to the buy-side. A few analysts in their 20s, but more commonly people becoming portfolio manager of top funds in their 30s, or becoming partner of new smaller HFs. Nearly impossible to move from sales to PE, exit ops for M&A and trading are clearly better, but it seems relatively easy to move to top hedge funds and asset managements at PM level, which is not too shoddy. Note that most salespeople today additionally assume the role of prop trader, having their own portfolio for top clients like Marshall Wace and Merrill Lynch Strategic, so can produce a decent track record in outperformance / alpha generation. Note though I'm talking equities, don't know how much sales exit ops differ for other asset classes.

I was always sceptical about the need for salespeople when software can do everything, but personal client relationships are extremely valuable. Say in equities, however automated research, high conviction ideas, IPOs etc gets, there will always be salespeople speaking to PMs.

Name them. I know of none.

You'll have to explain this in greater depth because it's unclear and smells a bit... off...

Our former financials salesperson moved to GLG, the aerospace salesperson to Marshall Wace. The guy who sat to my right is now a portfolio manager at Capital. The guy behind recently moved to Artemis investment management, another just left to become Partner of a new hedge fund. Our equity research guy who put Northern Rock on Sell a yr ago got snapped up by Algebris (an affiliate of TCI) age 27.

The list goes on. And this is in cash equity sales. Literally every single person I know who left the industry for something else has moved to the buy-side, mostly hedge funds.

I'll clarify, I'm particularly uncertain of the idea that they have become portfolio managers and this was followed by what I had said later.

You realise this system has little to do with particular salespeople...

Yes, they do. They move from sales to become PMs, and our clients. Sales is a sufficiently good background to become a PM, when you're having to make the right calls, and performance can be concretely shown with portfolio trading (see below).

You're assuming it is absolutely and only the salesperson who makes the idea. It isn't. "Star" analysts on the research side, I see and know getting snapped up.

Beyond this, there's a lot of hedge fund space that is beyond equity long/short - something to keep in mind.

Hey everybody,

I need some informed opinions - I am slightly concerned that by going down the sales route I am specialising too much and the only career progression is by moving up to MD level and beyond, which I can imagine to be very difficult when you are competing with brightest and most focused group of people in any workplace.

Firstly, I am going to explain why I chose sales. I like people and socialising and I love markets, I follow them everyday and love to talk about them to friends who are interested in them. I also think I have the potential to be a great salesman and I am very entrepreneurial, I have set up companies/run money-making schemes my whole life, especially since being at university. I am graduating with Economics, while I have covered quite a bit of quantitative material, mainly statistics based, this is obviously not to the level of maths grads. So given this, sales is perfect for me at a BB and it is a career I think I could do well in. My career aspirations are to make it to a very high level, I would be happy to make it to MD and beyond; something like a EMEA/global head of a product.

But ideally I would like to be a hedge fund manager or essentially 'work for myself' while doing the same markets based role. After doing some research into it they do have some demand for sales-type-roles to drum up interest and raise funds but these positions are very limited and are not very lucrative. So this brings me onto trading, would you say that trading would be a much smarter route to go down in terms of career options later on? I do like the idea of trading and again I think I could be pretty good at it and have been successful in simulators/real life trades I do.

SO. Will sales limit me to one career path in finance? Will trading be a lot more lucrative and have more career paths to possibly a hedge fund?

Your informed opinions would be appreciated, i.e. no posts from aresholes like lala. I am doing a summer internship this summer in a sales position of a derivatives product at a BB so it is not too late to try and focus on trading.

To answer the last part of your question OP about whether you are limited to finance...

I don't think so, I'm sure people in Sales from an IB can move to an equivalent role at a tech company either in actual Sales or as a Product Manager at a Google or a Facebook etc.

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The thread was started seven years ago.

Well done you clever boy (!)