Sales sales sales! I can't get away from it!!!!!!

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RAwannabeCFA

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I worked at MS briefly back when I was a trader right during the DW acquisition...I literally hated every single person I met at the company. The Dean Witter merger jacked things up but it was not a great place to work before that. I thought then and continue to think their ER is second rate. Since I left almost 10 years ago I still have rarely met a person at the company I like. I did meet one trader on a Dallas bond desk who was a good guy but he hated working there too and left shortly there after. Maybe things have changed with Mack there but the culture or lack there of when Purcell was running the company made me vomit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Monday, May 14, 2007 at 11:59AM by RAwannabeCFA.
 
RAwannabeCFA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I worked at MS briefly back when I was a trader
> right during the DW acquisition...I literally
> hated every single person I met at the company.
> The Dean Witter merger jacked things up but it was
> not a great place to work before that. I thought
> then and continue to think their ER is second
> rate. Since I left almost 10 years ago I still
> have rarely met a person at the company I like. I
> did meet one trader on a Dallas bond desk who was
> a good guy but he hated working there too and left
> shortly there after. Maybe things have changed
> with Mack there but the culture or lack there of
> when Purcell was running the company made me
> vomit.


I think your experience then not only as a trader but also under the leadership of Purcell explains the difference in opinion concerning the firm's outlook and culture. Makes sense.

As for their research, I think it is still among the best even though the department has gone through qiute a bit of changes in terms of personnel and business strategy over the last couple of years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Monday, May 14, 2007 at 12:50PM by numi.
 
Here are a couple career tracks you might want to consider:

Fund Wholesaler - It's still "sales", but instead of selling to little old ladies, you'll be selling to brokers/financial planners. You'd probably start off as an internal wholesaler keeping touch with brokers within your wholesalers region giving them marketing help for your products, informing them of new products, etc.

Product Specialist/Client Relations - Big investment firms, like PIMCO for example, have a lot of big institutional clients that want to know what's going on with their investment, but obviously Bill Gross doesn't have time to give personal attention to each client. In comes the product specialist who will serve as the investor's main contact. They'll oversee reporting and operational issues and also have an understanding of the firm's investment strategy/portfolio and be able to relay that on to the client. They would of course approach the client with new investment strategies being developed.
 
boo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Product Specialist/Client Relations - Big
> investment firms, like PIMCO for example, have a
> lot of big institutional clients that want to know
> what's going on with their investment, but
> obviously Bill Gross doesn't have time to give
> personal attention to each client. In comes the
> product specialist who will serve as the
> investor's main contact. They'll oversee reporting
> and operational issues and also have an
> understanding of the firm's investment
> strategy/portfolio and be able to relay that on to
> the client. They would of course approach the
> client with new investment strategies being
> developed.

Product specialists are usually very senior on the buy side. Usually they have 10-15+ years of experience and half of that specializing in a sector. There are plenty of other roles to look at:

Client Service Analyst/Associate (0-5 years exp)
Client Service Executive/Institutional Marketer (at least 5-8 years exp.)
 
Thanks a bunch for the info.

The MS employees I have dealt with have been primarily in the back office: (compliance, document control, legal, branch support, account operations, etc.).

The people who I thought were the A-holes were the salesmen, interestingly enough. Operations, and management are quite pleasant and even-tempered.

The guys who work the trading desk make me laugh because they are under soooooooo much pressure during market hours. They are quite knowledgable and helpful, they just don't want a phone conversation more than 2 or 3 milliseconds.

To the others, thank you very much for your suggestions about what else to look for.

I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for positions in the internal job bank. Guess I'll have to save up to relocate to New Jersey or NYC, since my office is somewhat limited in scope; mostly branch support and low-level client support.
 
That post has definately been edited since I responded to it. The major point I responded to has been stricken from the post. Good judgement on that.
 
yeah... i saw it before it was edited too greenspan. i'm curious how hayhurst did that.
i figured this thread would disappear.
 
C-Hayhurt? On reply to my post? Are you REALLY under the impression that doing what's right for the client is "irrelavent". Your ass is like a little doe in the jungle of compliance banches! As a career, with that thinking, you are going to have many legal battles in front of you. My advise it skip the CFA studies and take communication, public speaking, or negoiation course study. I'm sure it's those skills that are laking which will cause small pay checks. Listen people out are LOOKING and researching good personal planner. Get your hands dirty, instead of hiding in the call center and meet clients, NO ONE is going to give you a dime when you meet a couple looking like a fresh glass of milk. You got look a little beat up!
 
^^^sorry, it was 9:30pm, and I've been studying for hours on the CFAL2 material. By the way, how did you do on the Level 1?
 
My advice will be to consider Accounting as one of the option. You might find it easier to get CPA given the fact that you can rewrite the exam after a month if you fail.

You can go into public practice and advice clients on taxation, enterprise risk management, auditing, corporate finance and other areas and will a chance to build long term client relationships.
 
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