What did you do before becoming an FA?
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My office has been hiring a lot of new FAs. I’m a bit surprised with the backgrounds of some of the people they’ve been hiring. They’ve been hiring people such as professional actors or interior designers who have no aptitude for, much less experience in, financial markets. Another initially surprising thing is that none of the new hires are under the age of 30 and one of them is almost 60.<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Are other offices hiring people with such varied backgrounds? What are some of the strangest backgrounds that you’ve seen change careers to become an FA?
--WM
A friend of mine's son-in-law (age 32 or so) just joined a major wirehouse. He was a customer service manager for Alaska Air (got pink slipped). Not sure what his major is/was (liberal arts of some type I think). Very people oriented guy and very experienced at handling cranky airline passengers.
I once knew this guy who graduated from an Ivy League shcool (NYU if I recall correctly) and went to work for Merrill Lynch when he probably could have gotten in on the institutional side of the business and most likely would have made more money and had a higher chance for success.
I wonder whatever happened to him.
Sorry…I’m feeling a bit like a troll today. I must be having NASDy Newbie withdrawals.
[quote=dude]
I once knew this guy who graduated from an Ivy League shcool (NYU if I recall correctly) and went to work for Merrill Lynch when he probably could have gotten in on the institutional side of the business and most likely would have made more money and had a higher chance for success.
I wonder whatever happened to him.
[/quote]
NYU isn't Ivy League...but thanks for the reminder.
NYU alums think it is
NYU's law school is very good, especially in certain niche areas like securities law.
USC and Stanford alums think we're Ivy League West!
Correction: but then again I was just a janitor.
I guess I should have said: graduated from a top business school.
Point being that Investment banks recruit from NYU.
Damn, I keep getting it wrong today: investment banks.
Wealth Manager: I'm sure you'll do great on the retail side.
I was a commercial lender at a bank. Before that I sold contracts for telephone equipment and systems for office buildings and other businesses (before the break up of ATT)
I was always interested at the different occupations of people who were training at EDJ when I was there. Some of them I thought odd/funny because I couldn't see any connection. Airline Stewardess, Chemist, Beer Truck Driver, Television Weather Girl, Sports Equipment Salesman (I guess that one kind of fits for the sales experience), Jewlery Store owner.
I was a CPA, then trust investment manager. I’m not at all surprised that your firm isn’t hiring under 30…that’s the biggest hurdle new reps have to deal with…the age thing. I was mid-30’s when I got my retail licensing.
CPA - Did audit with a Big 6 firm and tax with a local firm that had about 20 professionals.
[quote=Starka]
I was an engineer in the Navy.
[/quote]
I didn't know they had trains in the Navy.
Hey, if the Army Corps of Engineers can have boats, then the Navy can have trains if it wants.
Starka, that was funny!
Dude, Bear Stearns loves Stern alums. They (the Bear) were the first (I think) to recruit a former NFL quarterback to be a broker. His alma mater was Alabama and he couldn't quite fill Joe Namath's cleats.
On my alma mater I was once told USC stands for University of Spoiled Children and sometimes that's quite true!