Words from a 5-year financial analyst to a newcomer in the financial world
You are used to listening to the myth of high salaries in the financial industry. Those of you who have just entered the financial circle may feel confused about the future because of the current situation around you. The words of this senior in the securities industry may bring you some help.
I am an analyst and have been working in the securities industry for 5 years before switching to the futures industry. From being interviewed to interviewing college students and graduate students. From listening to the boss’s training with a small book in the conference room to talking on the podium with flowers, we all came from the university, and I often feel the various performances of you when you come to the interview. I was young when I first entered society.
Teachers in college will tell you to study hard and you will have a good life in the future. I can tell you that a lot of what you have learned is useless, and it can even be said that you will not be able to use it much. There are too many reasons, I won’t go into detail with you one by one, complaining about society is not my purpose.
The first thing I do when training new employees is to correct the concepts they learned about economics in college, lest they stare at me with thick spectacles and talk to me about money. Incorrect understanding of society is a problem that every college student will encounter, including some of you who are very advanced in school.
Those of you who study super well, congratulations, you will have fewer detours, but it will be equally bumpy. If you can enter a certain bank, the investment banking department of a securities company, that’s great, at least your life can be guaranteed. However, your desire to show great ambitions will be put aside for now. There are not so many big projects for you to run. What you do first is to collect some data, and then report to the investment bank every day. If the unit is better, if there is a project to do, you will be responsible for some basic data work, and if the leader sees that your child is good, he will take you out for a run. Lower your stance, and you will get ahead faster after a few years.
Those who study in general and have no special background are the majority. I mainly chat with you. Go to the brokerage, go to the bank, go to the futures, go to the insurance. In addition to banks, the other three types of financial companies have relatively large talent mobility. You have to position yourself on what to do. I believe that no one wants to be a salesman from the beginning, everyone wants to be a researcher and an administrator. But more than half of you will start with sales, why? Because you can’t be a researcher.
Financial companies still lack R&D personnel but believe me, most of you are not qualified. Because you know too little about society, and all the knowledge you learn is in books. At least you have to spend a few years to understand what the industry chain is. The cost of this training is very high. Every company wants to poach one from another company. Only a few companies are willing to spend the cost to train a college student to be a researcher. Therefore, most students will start from sales. There is nothing wrong with doing sales, it is very profitable to run into a good market.
Many students who are new to the industry are very courageous. They call the client in front of me and say that we have news that which stock is going to rise. Sometimes I just casually say that private equity is interested in stocks.
Research is a long process, and one must go through at least one full economic cycle to gain insight. In this economic cycle, you have to live. If you can’t rely on the company to support you for nothing, you can study and make money while thinking. But if you kill customers, then you have to spend a lot of extra effort to find other customers. Customers are like the crops we grow. You have to spend energy to make them grow and then share the fruits. Irresponsible financial management is killing the chicken to get the egg. You will eventually turn yourself into a liar.
Some of my classmates were good at college, but after coming to the company, they were trained as talents and entered the research department. A few children couldn’t help it after a while. They were far from the research work they imagined. Every day, they either helped the company with trivial matters or copied and pasted data into the database. Oh, it’s all like this, don’t look at this mountain is low or high. Most of the practice in the financial industry depends on oneself. It was boring at first. Over time, the experience accumulated time will show the level of each person’s level.
Many top students from famous domestic schools in the company are all recommended by the deans and teachers, and the company also values them very much. Every time I give lectures outside, I can see them rushing to and fro in the audience to help. But that’s all the work is, and companies can’t take risks and hand them over to you. It is much better than when I graduated. At that time, I was taught by no one at all and taught by myself. It is better to get all the required qualifications before graduation so that you can start to take the CFA and CIIA exams after working, which will be helpful for your analysis in the future. Remember, analysis is for yourself. You can write something to deal with the company or even the customer, but how you evaluate the market in your own heart directly determines whether you make money or lose money.
I will first point out the future path for everyone and then analyze it. There are only three paths to finance: management, research, and marketing. There is no other way.
Dear students who want to enter the financial industry and are already in the financial industry, why do you want to enter the financial industry? What is your purpose? In your spare time playing games, shopping, drinking, and picking up girls, have you ever thought about how to go in the future? In the beginning, I chose the financial industry for nothing more than two ideas: First, this is a hugely profitable industry, and countless rich people have been born. Second, this is a very free industry, where success depends not on your background, but on your mind, which determines your success.
The mark of success is the wealth you accumulate. But the truth is not as simple as I thought. On this road, I have also walked alone and difficult for a long time, and now I have gained a little. First, let me talk a little more about the current state of the financial industry. Let’s talk about doing research first, and then talk about doing the market. I didn’t live that much, so I’d be fooled if I say too much.
China’s financial market has not developed for a long time, and there are generally two types of talents here, returnees and natives. The returnees came back from studying abroad, and they have advanced ideas. They have introduced many operating methods that were once played abroad.
Such people are keen to engage in theory, like high education, have nothing to do with a financial model, and take the high-end route. The theory is strong, the practicality is very good and some are general. The reports they write are oriented by the investment banking department and then sold to listed companies and investors.
Turtles are investors and speculators who have been born and bred in China since the beginning of the financial market. The only thing these people focus on is practicality. Saying nothing is useless, how to make money is more fundamental. They also write investment reports, but they know how much their investment reports are worth, so they don’t need to go to great lengths to hire professional writers. They cooperate with private equity and funds. Many of those people have some background, and they have a good prediction of national economic policies and do not need a lot of industry reports. So, students, you need to know what kind of person you will be in the future. If you study abroad, study for a master’s degree in finance, then take the CFA exam, and you can enter an investment bank after returning, congratulations to you. You have directly entered the upper reaches of the food chain in the financial industry, so you don’t have to worry about eating.
Are the reports you write that valuable? uncertain. Just think about it this way. After you go to college, you will have younger brothers and sisters at home. When you go to college, your parents will ask you to make suggestions and see which majors are more promising. Why? Because you went to college and thought you were in the industry and had experience. But if you think about it for yourself, can you see it? The same goes for reports.
Each analyst’s report is what the analyst thinks about himself, and each person’s knowledge source is different and the writing is different. Investors, will companies take your analysis report as a weather vane? No, more is just for reference. Therefore, many students who do analysis and theory will be very confused in the end, what is the use of what I have written. I haven’t read brokerage analysis reports for a long time. Unless there is something I am interested in, I will use it as a reference, it is just a reference.
Generally, there are research institutions specializing in selling reports, such as “Red Weekly” and “Kaili Caijing”, and the annual membership fee is tens of thousands of dollars. But there are only a few valuable ones, and most other research reports are useless, at least I don’t think they are. Have you ever studied DPM and CICC in your research industry? Can you beat a brokerage with technology? When entering such a company, everyone should go with the idea of honing their skills and not thinking about making money. Some financial sites are included here.
Then, let’s talk about private equity and funds. These companies are quite short of talent. Because there are more and more private equity funds in China, they need to have their research teams. They have core talents, but researchers, the salary is not high at the beginning, and they are raised as long as they are raised.
The quality of such companies is uneven, everyone must be careful, some good fund companies are not easy to enter, and the requirements are high because they are professional enough, why do they keep you for nothing? In addition, some small funds and private equity are mainly maintained by private capital. Some are very rich, some have no meal after being full, and people with good talents are not willing to go. I went to catch up with the good market to earn some money, and when it was bad, I had to find another job.
There is another category that trains and needs more analysts, such as securities companies and investment banks. Insiders and outsiders of securities firms are generally invisible. When I was in China Investment Corporation, I published a large booklet every year, and it contained reports on any industry. You may not have to read it if you have money. These are the best of the best. They are the brainstorming ideas of the company’s more professional writers, and then decided by the decision-makers of the company’s think tank, and then sold to large enterprises.
If you want to go down the road of research, you have to go up step by step. I suggest that you occupy a favorable position for yourself at the beginning. The research report you wrote at the beginning must be of little level, but everyone came here. This thing really can’t be taught, everyone’s ideas are different.
The general direction accuracy rate of the research materials processed by the headquarters can reach about 80%. But in practice, it can’t be used simply, otherwise, it will die. These reports are ok for corporate customers to look at. If the price of raw materials in a certain industry is going to increase in the future, it is appropriate to stock up more. What is the use of ordinary investors looking at these things? Just tell me whether it is going up or down, buying or selling, and I don’t care about the rest. The larger revenue of each company is still from retail investors.
Therefore, researchers are needed, and high-end personnel is in short supply, but companies do not lack low-end researchers, and market developers will always be lacking. No matter what you study, no matter what level of education you have, you can just bring me clients, and you can do whatever you like. Anyway, I’ll give you the money that should be given to you. What else do you want? This is the current thinking of most companies. There are too few companies like our unit that don’t lack money to train people.
We talked a lot about analysts, let me talk about marketers. Most of the top executives in the company are engaged in marketing, and this proportion will reach more than 60%. Even those with a background in marketing performance are important metrics. It doesn’t take much knowledge to do marketing. Marketing is not that difficult, especially for individuals: reserve knowledge, find a platform, and never give up.
There are still very few people in our country who understand stocks. If you want to be a customer and earn commissions, the knowledge you have learned now is enough. Because you are not qualified to do financial management. I have too little market experience, and I earn a lot from being a client. I started as a client.
The best customer in our place is a woman who used to sell cosmetics. What’s more interesting is the previous time a client called her and said how the market was doing? The woman said I don’t know, I’m not responsible for the market. This quote has been our laughing stock for years. But people just make money, in good times, hundreds of thousands a month, which is more than the boss.
Others also have little ability, that is, a woman Wang Baoqiang. Every day I run clients, and they know that she doesn’t understand stocks at all, and they are willing to cooperate with her. It’s kind of dark humor. Her assets can top 1/3 of the sales department. Are you saying that marketing is difficult? It’s hard to say that, when the woman has no money, she eats buns every day and eats with us. It took several years to get up. After getting up, people will be bullshit.
Don’t everyone in the financial industry want to make some money? What kind of finance do you do for the sake of making money? Invisible and intangible. Whoever has money is successful, whether it is in the high office building of the headquarters or under the scorching sun? A lot of people hate marketers.
But in the financial industry, if you want to talk about word of mouth, securities brokers are still OK, at least better than insurance salespeople until you don’t lose money to customers. Many people develop client talks, and I help you make money. We have said it before, this is a joke, you may make some money when the market is good, and these people are the ones who die earlier when the market is bad.
A friend of mine used to do this kind of thing. He told the client that I would help him with the trade. You gave me dividends. , I’m going to pack you up. The guy was so frightened that he ran away without leaving the room. Don’t dare to show up yet. In the past, many clients mentioned to me financial management, but I never agreed. I said that I can guide you, but I do not manage financial management on behalf of clients.
Generally, people who can survive in this market for 3 years will survive, and then they will consider what to do next, whether to do research or do management. Both are good. My former boss didn’t understand stocks, so he knew how to manage people. Now I’m the second-in-command of a securities firm, driving around everywhere to talk about cooperation. How nice.
If you are self-motivated, you should start planning your future path. There is no harm in learning more. If you continue to do marketing, the snowball will get bigger and bigger, you will become more and more skilled, and more and more people will follow you. will start making money. If you want to do research at this time, you will start to take the paths I mentioned at the beginning. Not bad.
