P&L Analyst/Institutional Sales to trader?

I have been offered two 8 month internships starting next january in institutional sales and as a P&L analyst (P&L includes a bypass of the six month graduate scheme upon a successful internship). I want to move to the front office when I graduate next year. Which would be more beneficial to learn more about the market and holds better prospects for the future? Also, I am studying a a BSc. in economics and maths, how helpful will this be? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

Hi PeteyG

Congrats on your offers. Have I understood you correctly: one offer of internship in sales, one of internship as P&L analyst? IMHO depends on a couple of things. If you want to be front office then on face of it the sales internship gets you straight in there to impress and you can see markets and how traders, sales interact. Not much good if you don't like sales though. P&L analyst you're largely invisible to front office, bit pigeon-holed. And it's not clear to me where this one leads? You skip the grad scheme and move to what? More P&L? If you're lucky you might later move P&L to Risk, then Risk to front office. Not knocking this as it's solid but could be a bit roundabout for your goal. Also don't dis a grad scheme, particularly if it's a good house. Recruiters often look to a successful one further down the track and anyway it's a good opportunity to get to know the place and people (and impress, again). But needs to be good grad scheme, well-structured, which not all are.

Of course you have to balance all this with the current market climate. How steady are your potential employees? What is outlook for sales desks? P&L more conservative, solid skills.

Yes, your BSc will be helpful for front office. Just make sure you get a 2.1 min.

Best of luck

Think about who will be more in demand... in a few years time, when things start to look rosy again and banks start doing more business, they are going to be desperatley short of sales staff (having fired them all previously).

Obviously choose the role which you are suited too, my point is only to bear in mind that in the future there will be a premium paid for a well qualified, experienced salesman.

Good points made by moa too; not going on the grad scheme may cause you earache if you look to switch firms after a few years...

Hi moa,

Thanks for help and advice. To answer your questions, one company has offered me instituional sales and the other P&L analyst. The company offering P&L analyst have said that I will basically have completed the graduate scheme by the time I would be finished as I would be there for an 8 month internship instead of the usual 3, and upon returning would come back as a P&L analyst. I would also have exams in the future with the company who are a good house but do not have a front office in Ireland, where im from. The job spec for this company is as follows:

-Support front office daily flash P&L preparation across all products and tading strategies including fixed income and derivatives
-Valuing portfolio's using Bloomberg valuations and models
-Assisiting fund managers with product set-up and valuations
-Working in a team to produce monthly Net Asset Valuations.


This is the response about the job spec from the institutional sales company:

You would not be doing P&L analysis, you would be supporting the sales reporting / management reporting process i.e.a sales analysis role. You will assist me in producing the monthly sales report and additional monthly / quarterly / ad-hoc presentations using the sales data we consolidate from our various Finance hubs globally. This exercise would include the preparation of sales analysis and stats (pie charts etc). Your internship will not extend beyond cross regional Finance, cross regional Client Servicing, Distribution Support and possibly some Sales (limited).

The position will provide a good understanding of the sales lifecycle, the product range we sell and the prospecting process i.e. RFPs. The position will not be exposed to Portfolio Management, Quant, Research, Operations or Technology.


Obviously I do not understand all of this but from your reading of it, would you be able to spread any light on which would be the better option? Again thanks for your help with this.

MrGecko,

Thanks for your reply, I was just wondering if I go into institutional sales and study for my series 7 etc. which they said I could do, along with other exams, how would it help? They do not have a full graduate program but do encourage relevant study. Would I be able to get round any barriers in the future this way?

I have worked for a smaller bank for the last 2 summers and did well selling and do enjoy it so the thought of sales is tempting. Would you be able to tell me, what the salaries for people in this job over the 1st few years? Thanks again for your help.

PeteyG

I think the efinancialnews job site may have salary guides and some "day in the life" profiles of various roles which you may find helpful. I confess to not really understanding the sales analysis role you've been offered as it didn't sound like front office desk sales, more like fund management. What products are they talking about? If you like you can PM me the names (in strictest confidence of course) which might clarify things. Also you seem to be more interested in sales than trading, am I right? What's your dream job and company (always helps)?

I need a job

Ill be out of a job Oct 31.

My present job :

Copper Distribution Traffic and Logistics Coordinator
• Liaison between vendors, customers and copper traders.
• Handle all customer service issues at the traffic level.
• Handle the logistics of processing buy backs, stops and repo of warrants.
• Prepare and send get in line instructions, create shipping schedule, prepare and send shipping instructions.
• Receive and process all bills of lading.
• Update and maintain spreadsheets accordingly, railcar tracing, monitor vessel departures and arrivals.
• Obtain freight rates quotes, pay warehouse storage bill's, pay freight bills.
• Provide daily reports to traders concerning movement of material, and advise accruals balance.
• Provide contract management and inventory reconciliation. Invoicing of purchase and sales contracts.
• Manage all excel spread sheets for copper inventory (in transit position sheets, daily check of HP inventory against excel sheets, end of month inventory and reconciliation of paper inventory verses physical inventory). Year-end inventory control person. Conduct auto pricing reconcile terminal tickets with paper tickets, terminal trades with trade sheets, process unpriced report, avg. pricing report and, print trader reports and distribute each night.


My position is being eliminated Oct 31 2008 and Jobs and employment in my area of expertise are very scarce. I noticed that there is a high demand for IT related positions at brokerages in the areas of Help desk, trade floor, operations support. Years ago i completed A+ and Network+ at a computer school in Manhattan. unfortunately I never used or utilized those skills. I'm wishing now that I had.But its never too late to start something. Please let me know what course you suggest that I take that would help me land a job in the brokerage industry supporting trading activities.

My plan right now is to increase my knowledge in SAP Sales and distribution, Inventory, recociliation. P&L Reports, and pivot tables.

I also want to finish my A+ and Network + certifacation.

Anyone know of any operations trade support jobs in the NYC metro area???