Part-time job: Discount brokerage?

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Mez

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Hey guys, I'm going to interview for an entry-level part-time (im full time undergrad) position at a Discount brokerage firm. On the phone, the guy told me that I will mainly do cold-calling and book appointments for the senior guys. Would this be a worth-while opportunity? Could this be decent resume exp, mind you I dont have much finance exp other than my extra-cirrucs and the fact that I currently work at a large investment company as an Investment Admin (Back office :( ) but my contract ends in 2 weeks.

But the MOST important factor me is: Will I learn anything? For the ones with experience with brokerages...is there much they could teach me?

I know this position compared to what a lot of you guys are searching for is nothing...but Im young and currently work part-time in BO and desperately want to start moving more to the front...im not expecting to make a single jump to junior trader, but im hoping that this position could set me onto the right track.
Help!
 
Well, you're still in undergrad so I think it at a minimum shows some initiative and may assist you with gaining internships, etc. going forward.

There is obviously a much stronger connection with sales and brokerage than with research and some of the "sexier" things we discuss on these boards.

Personally, I think there are more +s than -s to this and it will help you understand what you want to do. Plus, it will look better than what most undergrads do for part time work.
 
Thanks for the reply BOMC. Appreciate the help! :)
 
i work at a discount brokerage.

there are better entry level opps you should seek out first, but i'll assume you already did that.

it all really depends on how much you want to learn. i consider working at a DB an intro to fin. markets since you come across a wide variety of fin. products. if you have very little experience in markets, it might give you a chance to know how options, bonds, foreign exchange and securities trade. depending on where you work, you also have ample time to surf the internet and read market news (my fave part of the job). therefore, if you really want to learn something simple, you definitely have the time to do so. like i said, its introduction in its most basic form.

its more then just taking the orders though it doesn't get complicated outside of dealing with 20 open option orders and having to calculate the required margin. you have to understand the things a bit. for instance, if the client wants to put together an option spread, you have to know how to do it and understand what's going on. laddering a bond portfolio, looking into mutual funds and talking to clients about it. basic stuff, you will definitely learn about fin. products.

another benefit you get is you get to talk to a lot of clients. this is my first job so getting that experience was important and I DID learn a lot in dealing with customers. it also teaches you a bit how to deal with rushing clients who are yelling at you to put something through. at first, it was tough, now i'm getting the hang of it.

the bad part. first, much of your job is going to be centred around customer service and dealing with client issues not related to markets (their margin is messed up, someone didn't put a trade in correctly, or send me some money to my account, check what i sold my stock at). they're annoying because customers are annoyed. depending on where you work, you might be forced to push for other products.

secondly, if you're ambitious, its going to really annoy you to read about things that you want to be doing. you end up thinking all the time, i just want to read about economics or companies instead of taking calls. in other words, things are too simple after awhile and becomes very repetitive if you just do the job.

lastly, the pay sucks (40k plus bonus=approx 43k w/ overtime 45k).

I would take DB over several other entry level jobs especially if i was under 24 years old. have you looked into ibanking?

finally, you mentioned something about being a trader. Not sure about doing DB to get closer. they're two completely different things. 50% of the people i work with who are ambitious are looking to be traders. however, i have never heard of anybody from my department ending up there. one of my manager has a connection there and is giong, but that's it. if you're looking to be a trader, i think anohter route mgiht be better cause DB problably won't get you there, at least not from what I can see.

i work in Canada btw so things can be diff. if you're in the US.
 
Hey Frank. Thanks for the thorough post man!!!

I live in Canada too :) Yay. Pay for my is not a problem, since it is only part-time, however I was told it is very good. But like I said, I primarily want to learn.
I-banking would be something else I would love to try, however, they only give summer internships and I want to work right now part-time...so I doubt any ibank will hire me for that.

Another reason for me taking this would be the resume-building aspect...might give me a little bit of an edge when it comes to applying to summer internships.
I gave "junior trader" as an example...not neccersarily what I want to do. But I was generally talking about getting into the "better" finance jobs (IB, ER, etc...). Im sure DB wont get me where I want, but like I said, even if I could learn a bit and set myself in the right direction, this will be way worth-while.

Thanks again Frank!
 
You can expect to make about 100K base with 50% bonus your first year. After that if you want to jump to back office at Hobbes' company you'll be a millionaire.
 
farley013 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You can expect to make about 100K base with 50%
> bonus your first year. After that if you want to
> jump to back office at Hobbes' company you'll be a
> millionaire.


WTF you talking about? trying to be sarcastic?
 
farley013 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You can expect to make about 100K base with 50%
> bonus your first year. After that if you want to
> jump to back office at Hobbes' company you'll be a
> millionaire.


How many times are you going to keep posting this crap? Yea, yea Hobbes said that but get over it...I swear I have seen you post this like 8 times since then, move on.
 
berkshire has a discount brokerage? is that berkshire securities?

how will the manulife takeover affect that division...i say, gone.
 
mez, you mentioned something about calling clients. we have an outbound team here that calls people about New Issues but that's it. maybe berkshire does it differently.
 
Im going for the interview right now...if you want to know, ill post how things went and what exactly they do?
 
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