Hedge Funds or donuts?...

J

Jmortgage

Please help and tell me as much as you can, and be as honest as you can with what you think is best...

Currently I am a mortgage lender in NJ for the past 4 years, age: 27, making around $80k each year. We are now in a mortgage/real estate slump, its harder to qualify anyone, and some of my realtor contacts are leaving the business. So I'm not sure if I should stay in this field where there is no salary or benefits or 401k and I never truly know what I'm making each month/year. I am good at what I do, I am one of the rare honest lenders out there with a good company and I have a strong following.

Or, right now, I can get a job with a very good wall street financial services firm in NYC as a Hedge Fund Operations Trades Specialist which pays $60k plus bonus. I don't know much at all about the industry or how to perform the job duties, but I am an intelligent and organized work horse with great communication skills, so I am very confident that whatever I get myself into, I will succeed at it.

Now I here that there is great money in this industry and I should expect to see many open doors after having 2 years of experience. But I don't know what is the next job up from this position and the one up from there or where people transfer over to, to make the most out of their career. And I don't know how income is for this position, is $60k plus bonus good, and what are the incomes in the future for the spots I should move onto next. And what is this I hear, that after 2 years, I can "write my own ticket." What is that?

Right now, my life is good, I make my own hours. But once again, being a young person, who needs to decide which direction to take and to think of his future, is the mortgage industry and the pay structure going to hinder my life in the future when I have a family and I have increased bills? Right now, its easy for me to handle making $15k in one month and then not make a penny for 2 months, since I don't have kids and/or a mortgage. I just have my condo that I rent and life is comfortable. But I can't carry this lifestyle forever and I need to move on and get a steady job with a steady pay structure even though its in unfamiliar territory and its in a line of work that may be more boring and/or more strict and corporate.

I've even thought about tossing everything out the window and just joining my friend and be a town cop in Bergen County, NJ where they start you of at $50k, 4th year you're at $80k, and you can top out at $150k as a captain. The job seems fun with many days off, the money is fine, the pension and benefits are great and I get to eat donuts all day, ha ha.

Please give me as much input and insight as possible, thank you very, very much.
 
Quote from Jmortgage:

Or, right now, I can get a job with a very good wall street financial services firm in NYC as a Hedge Fund Operations Trades Specialist which pays $60k plus bonus. I don't know much at all about the industry or how to perform the job duties, but I am an intelligent and organized work horse with great communication skills, so I am very confident that whatever I get myself into, I will succeed at it.
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Wait a minute, you do not know anything about the industry or the profession and obviously have little qualifications for it, yet you know you can get that job?

It must be back-office position or you have some good connections.
 
Quote from Jmortgage:

Please help and tell me as much as you can, and be as honest as you can with what you think is best...

Currently I am a mortgage lender in NJ for the past 4 years, age: 27, making around $80k each year. We are now in a mortgage/real estate slump, its harder to qualify anyone, and some of my realtor contacts are leaving the business. So I'm not sure if I should stay in this field where there is no salary or benefits or 401k and I never truly know what I'm making each month/year. I am good at what I do, I am one of the rare honest lenders out there with a good company and I have a strong following.

Or, right now, I can get a job with a very good wall street financial services firm in NYC as a Hedge Fund Operations Trades Specialist which pays $60k plus bonus. I don't know much at all about the industry or how to perform the job duties, but I am an intelligent and organized work horse with great communication skills, so I am very confident that whatever I get myself into, I will succeed at it.

Now I here that there is great money in this industry and I should expect to see many open doors after having 2 years of experience. But I don't know what is the next job up from this position and the one up from there or where people transfer over to, to make the most out of their career. And I don't know how income is for this position, is $60k plus bonus good, and what are the incomes in the future for the spots I should move onto next. And what is this I hear, that after 2 years, I can "write my own ticket." What is that?

Right now, my life is good, I make my own hours. But once again, being a young person, who needs to decide which direction to take and to think of his future, is the mortgage industry and the pay structure going to hinder my life in the future when I have a family and I have increased bills? Right now, its easy for me to handle making $15k in one month and then not make a penny for 2 months, since I don't have kids and/or a mortgage. I just have my condo that I rent and life is comfortable. But I can't carry this lifestyle forever and I need to move on and get a steady job with a steady pay structure even though its in unfamiliar territory and its in a line of work that may be more boring and/or more strict and corporate.

I've even thought about tossing everything out the window and just joining my friend and be a town cop in Bergen County, NJ where they start you of at $50k, 4th year you're at $80k, and you can top out at $150k as a captain. The job seems fun with many days off, the money is fine, the pension and benefits are great and I get to eat donuts all day, ha ha.

Please give me as much input and insight as possible, thank you very, very much.
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this is a honest answer.....become a nurse.. take the 2 year course and you will be making 80k anywhere in the country and i do mean anywhere...the demand is insane..so much that they are giving hospital employees a bonus for bringing them nurses in some cases...and the demand for 2010 is going to be 1 million from what ive been hearing...hell staffing agencies are bringing them from india and are making a ton of cash ( the staffing agencies)...peace and good luck
 
Most morgtage brokers are idiots, in fact that whole side of the industry is full of morons who are being laid off in countless numbers.

Morgtage Bankers, usally educated with MBA's in finance are still pullingin 100k plus. That side of the industry is far more respected by Developers, M&A groups, etc.

Morgtage Brokers were scam artist who liked to make risky loans to people that have no credit, no savings, no equity and even BAD CREDIT. They pushed 2/28 and 3/27s as well as 80/20s.

All of them are going down and will be jobless by 2008 as Lending Regs will kill their plays.

I highly doubt any mortage broker will be offered "back room" anything from any serious and respectable Wall Street Firm.
 
Wow thanks EMR, but no I'm not an idiot and I never did any scams. I graduted at the top of my class in Rutgers with a Finance degree and a Math minor. I used to work in the venture capital field as an analyst for a year, but moved to mortgages because the money was good and the job was easy.

Hopefully, you can tell me something I don't already know, obviously I already know the mortgage industry is doomed thats why I'm looking to leave, duh. Thats why I'm asking for info on the job I'm going after or should I go along with something else... idiot.
 
the true scam artist in the mortgage industry will make more then 80 k yearly, so i think he is probably a legit broker, otherwise his income would be much higher than it is, unfortunately their are bad apples in every industry. most guys made huge money. lets not jump to conclusions in any event, buyer beware , buyers have to take responsibility for their actions., if your chasing the housing market & lose , no different then chasing a stock & getting burned, too many dumb people. car salesmen are the biggest bullshitters going. next to wall street themselves. you may have a good deal for someone with no wall st experience, maybe you should take the offer. coming on et is the wrong place for advice, first mistake so far.
 
Jmortgage,

Backoffice work, which is what you are being offered, is hard and unrewarding work. It is hard to move from such a position to anything else at a bank, the same goes for an IT job. My suggestion is to pass on anything that smells like this job. Don't worry, there will be plenty of these jobs always open, because no one wants to do them. Don't take it unless you are desperate.

Getting a good job (ie. Front office) is very hard, so at the very least try to get a middle office job. Your chances of moving up from middle office are much better and the work is not as grueling as back-office.

With your background, you best chance is probably as a credit analyst. It isn't fun or very rewarding at first, but its much better then back-office.

Good luck,
Neo
 
Quote from Neodude:


Backoffice work, which is what you are being offered, is hard and unrewarding work.
More...

It may not be a pure back-office job, although it sounds like it. Depends on the place. If it was a big name firm, then it is an obvious dead-end back office position but in smaller places, it can be a hybrid position, where you get to advance beyond the back office duties as you learn & progress.
 
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