Hi all,
I have been trying to understand about the I Banking industry and went thru loads of guides like wetfeet/vault/day in a life etc to understand more about I Banks and the kind of jobs they have. I briefly understood that broadly it can be classified as
1. M&A (including underwriting for IPO's etc)
2. Sales and Trading
I have a few queries. Request someone knowledgeable about the industry clarify the same.
1. In the Sales and Trading, I understand that there are various "desks" like fixed income, commodities, derivatives, currencies etc. I did not find any guides highlighting the differences between these though one particular guide mentioned that the culture and the skills required are vastly different for each of these desks.
Can someone explain how and why that is the case and how they are different. If someone can also explain the various desks available and how the job and skill level varies between each desk, nothing like that. And some talk about the money wont hurt.
2. Would sales guys also have a different lives in different desks or will they be just selling different things, but basically the same way?
3. I understand that the I Banks are called sell side firms. What kind of career path do the traders have after 2-3 yrs in trading with these firms. I heard that they try shifting to buy side firms. Can someone discuss more on this. Why the shift happens? Is it coz money is higher. Are all asset management firms, buy side firms? Are hedge funds one type of asset management firm. If they are one type, are there various types even in asset management similar to the various desks in trading.
4. How easy is it to shift tracks within desks. Say today I trade equities and then shift to commodities etc. Is it very different or is it all one and the same kinda job profile.
5. If I want to be safe and join a desk which will open more career options later on, which one is better?
These kinda answers, I could not find much from various websites. All websites talk about lot of money, lot of pressure etc in I banking world. But not much into the details of job profiles. The websites discuss about I Banking and Sales & Trading in general. Not about the individual desks.
So, please help.
RPK