ahahah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > bchadwick Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > My guess is that structured credit/finance will > > continue to exist, since there are situations > > where it may make sense to do, but it got > > massively overdone without appropriate risk > > controls in recent years so people are shying > away > > from it. > > > > When the overall market recovers, though, there > > will be tons of structured finance people who > > are/were laid off and have experience. It > doesn’t > > make a whole lot of sense to try to compete > with > > that crowd in a recovering market - about the > only > > benefit you’d have is the ability to say “I > didn’t > > screw up because I wasn’t there”, but the other > > guys will be able to say what they did and how > > they would avoid messing up again. > > > > Seems to me that it would be better for a > newbie > > to compete elsewhere in the industry. > > Not so sure I agree with this. Although these > things sound fancy, the actual work is fairly cut > and dry and anyone with a moderate financial > background is well qualified for an entry-level > position. Having had experience specific to > structured product will not come close to trumping > experience with the collateral. In other words, > if you have a background in commercial real estate > trumps a background in structured products for a > CMBS job. I’d imagine in trading, having a > background in FI trading trumps a non-trading > background in structured products… > > In terms of the market coming back, I agree with > Spierce in that it may return, but it will not be > as big as it was getting. On one hand, banks made > good money on these things while the market was > doing well; however, when the market tanked, they > were stuck with all the loans that they couldn’t > sell and were, therefore, forced to write them > down. Furthermore, these things sat on the books, > which placed huge limits on originations, which > inevitably led to borrowers flocking to portfolio > lenders over securitization shops. In the end, > banks realized that the business isn’t as low-risk > as they thought it was, so it should play a > proportionally smaller role. I didn’t mean that it wouldn’t make sense to compete in financial markets at all with the laid-off ABS crowd, it just didn’t seem like the place to start competing. I agree with you that a good understanding the underlying securities is a good place to start or be, and a sensible place to try to break in as a newbie.
I hear you, I just think the fact that, in the end, the assets which are created are securitized is typically overemphasized in job postings to make them sound sexier… It doesn’t really have that much to do with the job you’re actually doing…