Career in financial services........Money+Power+Contacts

Many people might have dreamed to pursue a career in Civil Services & become an IAS or IPS officer which provides Money,Power& Social status.But The most valuable qualification in a country like India is gaining peoples mandate.Nothing or No other career beats this( becoming MP,MLA,CM ,PM etc.Bcz u dont need any education qualifications, even an uneducated has the eligibility to become one even PM)We might have missed a chance.But Even in private sector there are few industries with in financial Services Sector which provide Money+power+Contacts+travel to different countries i.e Investment banking,Private Equity,hedge funds,venture capital etc.Of course Pay is very high if we succeed so is pressure ,risk & politics.In these industries there are no ifs & buts, Getting Things Done(GTD) only matters bcz u will be dealing with billions of dollars & directly dealing with C level executives.(Through out history we Indians are known for preaching ethics & morals to others & Not for Getting Things done (GTD) so you can find too many babas from India fooling many people. Even Indians are known for Mathematics during Aryabhatta’s era i.e 2000 years back but not now.) They don't care what u do or how u do it. Even there are few hedge fund managers who are making $230k a day (even on weekends and bank holidays for eg in Clive capital).To understand the basic classification of companies in finance services sector plz check the attached doc.

The global financial system (GFS) or financial services Industry is the back bone of world economy.Dont forget the popular quote "Finance is a gun. Politics is knowing when to pull the trigger." There is another popular quote from mob movie scarface which is applicable to finance. ( Scarface is a 1983 American film starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana, its about Al Capone one of the most feared gangster in USA)

"In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women." Of course this holds true even now from a mans perspective.

Note : Only few Industries ( Not All) with in financial Services sector provide you great scope.Even Auditing & Working in commercial banking Sucks. In USA you have the resources to teach Finance for children when they are in school itself( From 6th grade or 7nth). Don't forget that warren buffet bought his first share/Stock at the age of 13.The best role model u can have is Warren Buffet & Dr. Michael Burry of Scion Capital (Dr. Michael Burry is the one of the few who made big/Money during 2007/8 recession using credit default swap (CDS)). India is not the right/great place to work in below said industries( bcz there are very very few) or for preparing/studying to get into below said industries. India is a hype. Indian market is still in nascent stage we can say negligible. Its good to be located/study in major financial hubs like New York, London,Hong Kong or Singapore etc to make a career in finance.

Following are the few companies in their respective industry in Financial services sector

1.Investment Banking

Goldman Sachs ( Ruler of The world. Most powerful firm on the planet so it is also called Govt Sachs.haaaa)
JP Morgan Chase
Morgan Stanley
Citigroup
Bank of America
Barclays capital
Lazard
Credit Suisse
Deutche Bank
UBS
.............list goes on

Investment bankers make a lot of money because they earn commissions on huge sums of money, have almost no overhead, and operate in an industry with high barriers to entry.

Whereas a real estate agent might earn 6% on a sale of a $500,000 house ($30,000), an investment bank might earn 1% on the sale of a $500 million company, for a cool $5 million.

While asset management firms and commercial banks also work with huge sums of money, their commissions are far lower – you can’t exactly charge someone 1% for depositing $1 million in cash at an ATM.

And their expenses are much higher – think about how much it costs to run a commercial bank, from the physical branches to the ATMs and credit cards, and compare that to the cost of running a 4-person M&A shop.

Other than office space and travel, banks have few expenses in the same way traditional companies do – so they can afford to pay out 50-60% of their revenue in the form of salaries and bonuses.and that’s why investment bankers make so much.

Investment banks in the top 5 cities for finance in the US focus on a different industry:
NYC: Diversified
Chicago: Industrials
Houston: Oil & Gas
San Francisco: Tech / Health care
Los Angeles: Gaming / Media


2.Hedge Funds

J.P. Morgan
Bridgewater Associates
Paulson & Co.
Brevan Howard
Soros Fund Mgmt
Man Group
Och-Ziff Capital Mgmt. Group
D.E. Shaw Group
BlackRock (BGI)
Farallon Capital Mgmt
Baupost Group
Goldman Sachs Asset Mgmt.
BlueCrest Capital Mgmt
Canyon Partners
Landsdowne Partners
Renaissance Technologies
Fortress Investment Group
Moore Capital Mgmt.
Viking Global Investors
Citadel Investment Group
SAC Capital Partners
GLG Partners
Tudor Investment Corp
.........list goes on

Heres the 2010 s Highest Paid Hedge Fund Managers

10. Paul Tudor Jones (Tudor Investment Corp): 440 million
9. George Soros (Soros Fund Management): 450 million
8. Bruce Kovner (Caxton Associates): 640 million
7. Carl Icahn (Icahn Management): 900 million
6. Eddie Lampert (ESL Investments): 1.1 billion
5. Steve Cohen (SAC Capital): 1.3 billion
4. David Tepper: 2.2 billion
3. Jim Simons (Renaissance Technologies): 2.5 billion
2. Ray Dalio (Bridgewater Associates): 3.1 billion
1. John Paulson (Paulson and Co): 4.9 billion

...............dazzled?

Hedge funds and private equity firms both make a lot of money because a lot of money passes through their fingertips and they take a good chunk of it without spending much.have almost no overhead, and operate in an industry with high barriers to entry.

Private equity firms and hedge funds earn money from a management fee – what they charge to cover expenses and “manage” funds – and carry – a percentage of their return on investment.

The typical management fee at these funds is 2% – so at a $10 billion fund, you could earn $200 million just for sitting around and “managing” the money.

The carry is dependent on performance: funds typically charge 20% on their returns. So if they invest $100 million and turn it into $200 million, they would earn $20 million and then distribute $80 million to their own investors.
“2 and 20″ is the term used for this structure.

A few funds perform extraordinarily well and make most of their money from the carry – but plenty of under-performing funds actually earn more from the management fees.

There is a chance that the current fee structure at private equity firms and hedge funds.will decline in the future.But overall they are safer than banks because they’re less public and an order of magnitude smaller - hundreds of employees at the likes of KKR and Blackstone vs. tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands at bulge bracket banks.Slashing bonuses wouldn’t have the same dramatic impact if you’re only hurting a few hundred people.

Hedge fund - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3.Private Equity

TPG Capital
Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Area
The Carlyle Group
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
The Blackstone Group
Apollo Global Management
Bain Capital
CVC Capital Partners
First Reserve Corporation
Hellman & Friedman

.........list goes on

4.Venture capital

1. Top 100 Venture Capital Firms
2. Top 100 Venture Capital Firms

All the major VC firms are in Silicon Valley,Especially in San Francisco. but there are VCs in New York as well but there are far more on the West Coast.


5.Sovereign Wealth Funds

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority( UAE – Abu Dhabi,Assets $627 Billion)
Government Pension Fund – Global( Norway ,Assets $571.5Billion)
SAFE Investment Company (China , $567.9 Billion)
SAMA Foreign Holdings (Saudi Arabia,Assets $472.5 Billion)
China Investment Corporation (China,Assets $409.6 Billion)
Kuwait Investment Authority (Kuwait,Assets $296 Billion)
Hong Kong Monetary Authority Investment Portfolio(China – Hong Kong,Assets $292.3 Billion)
Government of Singapore Investment Corporation ( Singapore,Assets $247.5 Billion)
Temasek Holdings (Singapore,Assets $157.2 Billion)
National Social Security Fund(China,Assets $146.5 Billion)
National Welfare Fund ( Russia,Assets $142.5 Billion)
Qatar Investment Authority ( Qatar,Assets $85 Billion)
Australian Future Fund ( Australia,Assets $72.9 Billion)

.........list goes on

International finance corporation (IFC) ( part of The World Bank Group )
<cite>http://www.ifc.org/

</cite>The World Bank Group
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank_Group
2.<cite></cite> www.worldbank.org

6.Management consulting (Not part of finance)

McKinsey & Company
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Bain & Company
Booz & Company
Arthur D. Little
Booz Allen Hamilton (Much of the company's work requires that employees have a security clearance.)

.........list goes on

Few Great Movies related To wall street or Investment banking

1) Wall Street ( Popular quote "The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed - for lack of a better word - is good. " is from this movie")
2) American Psycho
3) Rogue Trader
3) Boiler Room
4) Barbarians at the Gate
5) Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
6) The Ascent of Money: The Financial History of the World
7) Other People’s Money
8 ) Bonfire of the Vanities
9) Wall Street Warriors: Season 1
10) Wall Street Warriors: Season 2
11) Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)


hmmmm You cant find India nowhere in the above said list for anything.But You can find India at No1 position here i.e for black money. http://www.bjp.org/images/pdf/feb_08_bjp_task_force_report_ii.pdf
http://www.swissbanking.org/en/d_jb_06-07.pdf


I dont know how the work culture is for women in these industries.As you might be aware that where ever you have more money involved,you have high politics(Never take peoples maneuvers personally.You merely try to defend or advance yourself.Instead of struggling against the inevitable ,instead of arguing and whining and feeling guilty,it is far better to excel at power.In fact the better you are at dealing with power,the better friend,lover,husband,wife & person you become )high pressure, High risk & sexual favors(we/You may deny, but the fact is women( married or Single) do get attracted towards men of power & success with out knowing their true Nature or Vices.Everybody is after Money/Power/women & sex/women is a commodity for those people ,of course there might be few rare exceptions.Every person has Vices which we are not privileged enough to know bcz what we study in media about them is either paid news or PR version of that person.Thorough out the world Media is puppet in the hands of Big corporates or politicians unless if you are Julian Assange of Wikileaks. At the higher end of ruthless corporate world sex/women is/are provided as a benefit for top level business honchos for their performance,taking risk at work, & for making sacrifice by being away from family for long, due to professional commitments. ( we can see most of the failed models or Bimbos here working as a PA/PS/ or personal companion for top level business honchos or management guys at work, making huge money for their services though they are less qualified.). So Please Don't adore/admire/Follow successful people or anybody blindly other than your responsible parents & stop preaching ethics & morals to others. its their personal choice) and remember that this is a mans world. Another important thing is Girls/women either married or single don't change their attitude even after coming to corporate world & still they reflect their college attitude as if they are still in college. During college days we might have flattened boys or our classmates with a single smile and make them write our records or internal assignments etc.But this ruthless corporate world doesn't work like college way. There is no free lunch. When we are incompetent/Not talented/Not Self Reliant at work in office & we depend too much on superiors or colleagues for doing our work & want more pay with out working theres always chance of demanding favors from these types girls/women by superiors. these girls cant complain or otherwise they have to resign & stay at home.These women/girls either married or single, life will not be no better than a sex slave for superiors untill they are working under them.

These people in above finance industries are most powerful( Power is essentially amoral & its a game played by big shots) people on the planet.So nothing comes out.Everything is top secret.We are too small to do anything so learn/be aware of the nuances of the corporate world. but there are few

Confessions of Barbara Stcherbatcheff about dark side of IB. In the past She worked as a Investment banker in London in a reputed Bulge bracket IB firm

1. barbarastcherbatcheff.com | barbara stcherbatcheff
2. barbarastcherbatcheff.com | barbara stcherbatcheff
3. barbarastcherbatcheff.com | barbara stcherbatcheff

Bankers Behaving Badly
Bankers Behaving Badly


A Parable On How Wall Street Works....

Once upon a time, in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10.

And, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20 for a monkey.

This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each, and the supply of monkeys became so small that it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35, and when the man returns from the City, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys. They never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how Wall Street works!!


There are few lobbying firms in USA(Lobbying is legal in USA) . There is no big money but we get great contacts & experience. chk out those firms.


7.Lobbying Firms

Patton Boggs LLP
Akin, Gump et al
Van Scoyoc Assoc
Cassidy & Assoc
Ogilvy Government Relations
Dutko Worldwide
Hogan & Hartson
BGR Holding
Williams & Jensen
Quinn, Gillespie & Assoc
Podesta Group
K&L Gates
Holland & Knight
Brownstein, Hyatt et al
Altria Client Services
PMA Group
DLA Piper
Cornerstone Government Affairs
Carmen Group
--------list goes on


I was not able to crack neither Civil services nor i was able to get into above said firms or companies.(Except for few roles you only require strong basic school level mathematics ,soft skills,Advanced MS Excel with VBA( heart of finance), PowerPoint,Public speaking, presentation skills,attitude,pleasing personality & high networking skills to get into above said firms.Age matters a lot.I don't mean to say getting into above firms is easy or cake walk,but its just difficult but not Impossible. People having experience in above said firms is a hot cake in the market.they are required or hired by each and every major company in the world irrespective of sector or industry the company is in. I assure you if u have passion, Financial services sector is the most fascinating,challenging &innovative industry to work in & Money making is the most admired skill/Art in the world.Everything is based on Money rather than grades or paper designations. Many people say “He might be rich, but he may not be happy or healthy.” but the fact is " We can be rich,happy,healthy,Ground to earth, well connected & powerful". Chk the research paper titled "The Symbolic Power of Money" that suggests Money Can Buy Happiness. http://www.csom.umn.edu/assets/127771.pdf ) But i hope after reading this U know where the money is & some of u or ur children may get in to them & make big. I have seen too many people discussing/In dilemma about returning back to India. Hope u can imagine what my answer is. :thumbsup

So Any one of you gonna be next Gordon Gekko?? Do you have it in You??

"Fame and fortune tend not to go to the people who come up with the idea but to the risk-takers who turn the idea into money."

"Honesty is a fools game.A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.Honesty is actually a blunt instrument ,which bloodies more than it cuts "

"Love,friendship,relationship & affection are also potentially destructive, in that they blind you to the often self serving interests of those whom you least suspect of playing power games.It is better to be feared & respected than to be loved."

"Believe in "Amor Fati","Taoism" & "Stoicism"

"Do not accept the roles that society foists on you.We only become what we are by the radical & deep seated refusal of that which others have made of us."

"What seperates those who go under & those who rise above adversity is the strength of their will & their hunger for power."

" Success comes from seeking an advantage in each & every encounter in Business & in life"

" Never argue.In society Nothing must be discussed; give only results"

But not the least "Learn to take what you need & feel no guilt about it.Depend only on your wits."

So You better hurry & do what you want.Start to live like you never lived before.

Wishing You tons of Success.:thumbsup

CGNY

Hope this helps....

Plz do read my another article Bright side of H4 Visa.....what you can do as H4 wife....
http://www.indusladies.com/forums/h4-indian-ladies/143672-bright-side-h4-visa-what.html



Note : These are my personal views and others may have different opinions. I respect that( i dont want to but i have to) bcz its a so called democracy. haaaaa

 

Thanks everybody.Now the article is complete.

@Shanvy Commerce is very interesting. science sucks even for me.I agree with u.If possible send ur daughter abroad for graduation itself, if money is not a constraint( i have seen many girls from delhi and mumbai coming to USA for graduation for studying in top colleges like Ivy league) so that she gets exposure that she needs to succeed in above said industries.In India at graduate level what we study is scrap & irrelevant to times. but in USA & other countries there are lot more specializations which are relevant to finance & moreover they are practical..Most of the above said firms hire from top colleges even after graduation,
of course not in India.) “Plan well in advance, not only for the academic programme you chose to pursue but also for the visa process,”

If she has time now ask her to learn some essential skills like fast mathematics , Advanaced MS excel with VBA,power point, joining gym learning kickboxing etc, networking sports like golf,tennis,snooker,horse riding ,Public speaking & presentation skills,reading financial newspapers or watching financial news shows on CNBC, reading great books about IB written by top guys like

Liar's Poker: Rising through the Wreckage on Wall Street,
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,Barbarians at the Gate [FONT=Calibri,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]By Bryan Burrough and John Helyar[/FONT],
Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle,
The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs,
The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co,Fooled by Randomness,
The Black Swan,
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life,
The Accidental Investment Banker: Inside the Decade that Transformed Wall Street,
Bombardiers by Po Bronson & many more.
.....& many more.

Plz dont dump many things on her at the same time. give her time to understand and grow. Prepare a proper plan for all the activities.bring her up as a global professional so she can survive anywhere.

From now i will post all relevant articles reg education at education forum

 

@Savvyheal it appears that u are a CA, CWA & MBA, having your own firm & many years of exp as chartered accountant( for me CA sucks) dealing with various clients through out ur career. I guess u might have 360 degrees view of finance industry like various positives and negatives. can u plz go through the article once, as i have edited it multiple times & let me know if there are any mistakes or any thing wrong in what i said or written above. thanks.


R. Sivabhogam (1907-1966) was India's first woman CA, if i am right she is from Kerala.

 

@Savvyheal Thanks a lot.But the CA, i admire most is Swaminathan Gurumurthy who is from chennai. (ex adviser to LK advani & he is the person who made life difficult for dhirubhai ambani in 80s, he sided with Ramnath Goenka (supported Nusli wadia) of indian express,against the Reliance group in one of India's bloodiest corporate wars ever fought , between Reliance & Nusli wadia. Ramnath Goenka is believed to have said "Nusli is an Englishman. He cannot handle Ambani. I am a bania. I know how to finish him").

Sure u can add few more points in my reply to Shanvy.With the kind of professional experience & credentials u have,I feel u r the ideal person to say on the subject, ur suggestions will be lot more credible,valuable & practical than mine that i have written above.As u are aware,that most people never follow good suggestions ,they follow suggestions given by persons in power or position irrespective of whether they are good or not.

 

For the parents who are mad about IITs/IIMs

Not a single Indian university — not even the celebrated IITs and IIMs — figure in the ranking of the world’s top 300 universities, with American varsities dominating the list.

The top 10 in the list of universities are: California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Oxford, Princeton University, University of Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley.

There are 75 US universities in the top 200. UK has 32 universities in the list, followed by Germany (12), the Netherlands (12) and Canada (9).

It seems govt has forgotten to bribe them to include IITs/IIMs in the top list, Bcz other than that what else they can do.

Check the story of a Mumbai girl Aakanksha Sarda who got in to Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) after class XII & she also won a gold at a International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), which was held in Croatia.

Aakanksha doesn't plan to get into IIT at all. "I was contemplating between MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Stanford. After visiting the two institutions I've decided to get into MIT (where she has already been admitted into the undergrad programme).

1.http://getahead.rediff.com/report/2010/may/27/achievers-iit-jee-topper-aakanksha-sarda-interview.htm
2.http://getahead.rediff.com/slide-sh...physics-olympiad-gold-medalist.htm#contentTop


Parents plz wake up.