Any underrated area in financial industry?

FO has probably more smart people than it requires and it is probably hard to survive there.

Is there any underrated area in financial industry where one can shine? Or is the market for careers generally very efficient?

RIA. Not the most glamorous, but once you collect enuf assets, solid cash flow…

Derivatives Sales. The job descriptions always sound pretty sketchy, but if you have a good personality or are a hot girl, you can probably make $300k+ or more in a few years.

hot girl + stellar rack >>> typical nerd with equal finance abilities

Right now I’m working in the same building as a bulge bracket bank and there are so many perfect 10s that work on their private bank/WM floors it is unreal. I’m sure their biggest qualification is that they look drop dead gorgeous in a skirt and keep the wealthy guys happy when they come in for meetings and give the nerds/overworked FO guys some eye candy.

They always have this “f*** off” look tattooed on their face walking around the employee parts of the building though.

It’s the dirty secret people don’t want to admit or talk about. I’ve seen countless less qualified hot females consistently land FO jobs, especially in direct client facing roles. Sales especially. It’s not too hard putting a hot young thing with a sexy voice either as a distraction or influence to the much older male client sitting across the deal table.

Or the MD who chooses to hire a hot sexy thing to be his personal eye candy in the office and just have her do menial work, until he goes home to the chain and ball much older wife at home.

Few of those women will climb into the upper senior ranks, but it doesn’t matter, and that’s not their goal anyway. Somewhere along the way, some MD will sweep them up and they’ll marry into a cushy life before their assets fade out.

If you ask me though, the *best* finance jobs are biased against hot women. If you have a team of Mitt Romney or George Soros types running the show, they are unlikely to take a pretty young woman seriously.

I’m skeptical of the value that hot girls may add in any important role…I think that PYT’s aren’t really suited for sales type roles, partly because when you have a hot girl selling you something, you subconsciously go on the defensive and question their merits and intentions. On the other hand if you have a fat/normal looking dude (think Chris Christie), you are automatically more comfortable.

Although if their role is purely “eye-candy”, all for it.

Underrated area? Maybe risk management. Lord knows we need more competent risk managers up and down the Street.

I guess “underrated” needs to be defined. I assumed it meant highest pay but lowest reputation. However, I suppose there are other ways to rank this.

Re: hot girls in sales… if you would rather talk to Chris Christie lookalikes than hot girls, I guess that’s up to you…

It’s not about “talking” to Christie lookalikes. Who is more likely to sell you on something? You are more likely to focus on the product when talking to a normal dude. With a hot girl you’re focusing on totally different areas. Maybe that’s just me.

Most financial products are the same across dealers. A swap from GS is the same as a swap from MS. If you buy AAPL with GS broker, it’s the same as MS broker. The only difference is who you think of first. Usually, it’s the person who bought you food last, you last talked to, or the one who is most memorable. No seriously. This is how it works. Professional traders don’t want someone to educate them about the product itself (nor should those people be trusted).

It’s about generating contacts and networking. A guy will come up to a hot woman and chat her up, explain the awesome stuff he does in order to get her interested in him, and hand her his business card with faint hopes of some nookie. She records who he is, how to,get in touch with him, meets him with a product specialist and hard-hitting sales guy, and the firm is off to the races.

If you’re deciding on a swap with GS or a swap from MS, how do you choose? Well, who had the hotter salesgirl that you want to impress is definitely one way.

You catch more flies with honey than [how does that saying end, anyway?].

Eventually, there may be a need for hot men in the sales force as well, actually, there probably already is.

Lately, one tall blond lady in my company’s sales team got knocked up by a business relation. So, I guess the “nookie” is not always a faint hope…

vinegar.

+1 Am also in support