Institutional Equity Sales

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finseeker

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I was approached by a head hunter for this pre-MBA role at a wall-st. firm. The first-year salary + bonus is $210k. Second year is $400k. Crazy…
What do these people do, and what are their prospects coming out? I’ve heard the high-level overview, but I’d like to get some clarity from those who know a little more about the role.
I’d heard that it can close some doors later on, but then again, since I’m a pre-MBA I could always attend b-school in a few years and transition into something else.
But please let me know what you all think.
 
for $200K a year, and potentiall double later on, I’d close plenty of doors in the short run
 
Remember that sales is about how much money you can bring in. Saying “you could be making $400k a year or two from now” assumes (probably) that you will be wildly successful in bringing money in. If you’ve never done this kind of work before, I would take that number with a (big) grain of salt. On the other hand, if you have a good sales record, it sounds great… but if you had a good sales record in things like this, you probably wouldn’t be asking us for advice.
Just something to think about if this job will really close doors for you.
Key skills for something like this:
Ability to sell…
Ability to cold call…
Persistence…
 
As an institutional sales person you really shouldn’t be cold calling. You will be handling a certain aspect of a relationship your bank has with an account (in this case: equity).
Also, if this is a large shop, you will likely be part of an analyst class. 3rd year analysts last year were likely in the $210k ballpark, but first years were closer to $130-140k.
All in all, the sales people earn good money and work nice hours. If you’re a natural salesperson, it can be a great life.
 
yeah… first find out how much the salary is and how much the bonus is.
 
I agree that cold calling is probably not a huge part of the job. My point was that to get to the $400k level, you’d need to be expanding the institutional clientele very rapidly, which would probably require a good deal of cold calling.
 
But back to my original question, I’d like to hear more about how this position is viewed within the investment world as well as MBA admissions.
If I did this for 2-3 years and then went to b-school, does it hurt me if I want to get back on the i-banking or investment professional track?
I’m curious about people who have either worked in this field or know people who do. How are they viewed within the industry, and what are the prospects afterwards?
 
If you are good enough to be pulling in 400k in Institutional Sales where the hours are way better than most other roles, you need to ask yourself, why on earth would you waste your time with an MBA to get into a banking program or buyside job out of B school that would sacrifice two years (or 800K in salary + tuition) and then take a pay cut where it would most likely take another couple of years at the very least to get back into that pay range?
Not sure it’d be worth it unless you are a star performer at an IB and make MD down the road.
Not trying to sound negative, just realistic.
 
If you want to do banking, an equity sales role is probably not the best place to start.
 
There are two parts to my question though.. Outside the money issue, where does this role lead to down the road?
Here’s why I ask.. I know a guy who was a top microprocessor salesman back in the late 80’s and 90’s. He made millions of dollars and retired young. But now, he’s in his mid 40’s and extremely bored. He’s tried to re-enter the job market, but he’s having a tough time because his skill set is sales with very little finance/management/etc. skills that could be useful within the industry/investing communities.
And so that’s what I’m thinking about when I see a role like this. What do equity sales folks tend to do after they’re in the role for 2-3 years?
Do they have good finance training that they can leverage for opportunities later? If they go to b-school do they have unique prospects coming out?
The money is a big factor, but a good sprint at the beginning of a marathon is not always a good thing. I’m looking at the 40-year horizon.
 
you progress forward in the hopes of covering bigger clients which = more compensation upside if you’re good. im sure there are opportunities to move to the buyside since you develop good inst. contacts that could be useful to a start up fund or an established fund. you’ve yet to answer anything about your background that would indicate you would get that level of compensation. i work in derivatives trading at a top 10 firm and can tell you noone here got 200k plus at the analyst level (pre-mba).
 
I don’t really have any insight on exit opps for that role. Definitely good questions to be asking though.
 
Side question for the insiders… How much does this research sell for at the institutional and mid-market levels?
 
jax26 Wrote:
——————————————————-
> im sure there are opportunities to
> move to the buyside since you develop good inst.
> contacts that could be useful to a start up fund
> or an established fund.
Jax, that’s a good point. Where specifically on the buyside would you see this role translating to down the road? Are you talking about an m&a role after an mba? Or, are you talking about a hedge/PE fund?
 
“where does this role lead to down the road?”
$400k per year leads to earlier retirement me thinks. Make a ton of money, quit the day job when you are 40 and start your own business.
 
M&A role is sell side and equity sales isnt going to get you there. i would say there is a shot at becoming an ecm banker if you developed good contacts at your firm. i think an inst. equity guy could make the transition to a hedge fund if their contacts are strong enough. for instance a start up fund looking for investors, if you have good inst. relationships you could add value in the fund raising process. you could also wind up covering an established fund/buyside firm, doing a good job and get a position with them in marketing their fund to new/exisitng investors.
 
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