"Working your way up", how have you done it? What obstacles did you personally face?

You can always move up in your career. If you can’t, you might need to start looking elsewhere. Since I am still new at my job , I can only speak on what I have experienced so far. I have managed to get a promotion within 1 year of starting, but that did not come easy.

There are many obstacles one must face, but a lot of it depends on each individual person. I found it easier for myself to just grit my teeth down and bust my rear to really prove that I belonged where I was. There is a steep learning curve when you start as a trader. You may think you understand investments, but you really don’t understand trading investments until they throw you to the wolves. I made many mistakes as a “newbie,” but I knew that was part of learning. I tried not to get caught up in any of the other stuff (politics, personal talk…etc) while on the job. I wasn’t a loaner, but I knew that too much of that stuff would only slow me down. So as a newly promoted Trading Officer, I now know that my next obstacle is conquering the MBA degree while working this insane full time job as a Trader.

Banking moments...

The world of banking..through my eyes (so far) has been a great experience.

I am the newest as well as the youngest trader on the desk. This has given me plenty of opportunities to make errors and create uncomfortable "banking moments." Working on a fixed income trading desk requires nerves as well as the ability to work on multiple tasks and trades at the same time. There is no particular moment that I can remember in mind as my whole early learning experience was one big mess up after another. I immediately came to grasp the nerves and stress that the job required. But my personality is that of one who tends to not get stressed out about things too much. This may have been the one trait that kept me from giving up and leaving. Some people may find that they can't really hack it out. I just gritted my teeth and kept repeating my popular phrase, " ...sorry, that is my 'bad'."

This definitely forced me to understand my job well and fast. As it would probably be a heck of a lot easier to work under a lighter-hearted environment, I don't believe we would be able to get the amount of trades done as well as we do if it was a light-hearted environment. Once you get the swing of things, trading becomes somewhat easier and you don't get "as stressed" as before. I must also say that I work with a great group of people that make the trading floor a tolerable and entertaining environment.