Financial world post apocalypse

December 2, 2009 2:08 PM

What types of job opportunities exist for people with a skill set derived from 3-5 years as an sector trader on the international trading desk for one of the top private equity investment firms?

Do those skills translate well into other positions outside of trading? This role was to execute the trades of portfolio managers, research industries and portfolios, trade with sell side brokerage firms as well as electronic algorithms and direct market access.
Product managers? Project managers? Market analysts?

Any ideas are a big help... Kudos if these opportunities exist in the northeast.

posted by namewithhe1d to work & money (3 answers total)

Lots of opportunities exist given that kind of background. But I think we'd have to know: are you looking to stay in finance? What's your educational background (MBA/CFA/some other degree/just bachelor's)?

Or are you asking for suggestion as to how someone with your background can transition to a job outside of finance?
posted by dfriedman at 6:20 PM on December 2, 2009

dfreidman - Actually, this isn't even a question for me... I was asked the the other day, and not really being a finance guy, I had no idea. In fact, it was my sheer curiosity that got me thinking about it.

That said, I would have to say that the skills would need to translate into another finance position. Basically, what is the path that people take from that type of position? I'm sure a common path would be an Assistant Portfolio manager then Portfolio Manager. But what else?
posted by namewithhe1d at 5:14 AM on December 3, 2009

dfriedman is spot on here, its difficult to answer in all but the broadest terms without knowing the education background. But let me take a crack at it:

Clearly front office experience lends itself most readily to other FO activities such as Sales or Analytics. Both of these present very divergent paths but I've seen folks move from trading into either, depending upon their interests and abilities.

Depending upon education and experience there might be opps in an Economics group; clearly a background in writing and speaking will help tremendously here.

A little further afield would see opportunities in Risk Management (this could either be front or middle office based, depending upon the firm), Operations or even Controlling - the last two being very underrated but very integral and critical roles.

One key consideration would be not only finance / capital markets knowledge, but also systems; I've seen some folks move from trading into IT simply because not only did they know the financial products but, most importantly, they know how data moved within an institution and what improvements would offer most bang for the buck.

These opps would all be squarely in the finance realm. I think the Product Managers role would arise if this individual joined a firm building and selling systems into trading or back office environments, probably the same for Project Managers.

Again some more education and experience would help refine the opps more precisely.
posted by Mutant at 7:45 AM on December 3, 2009