As discussed in two previous posts, a career in investment banking on Wall Street can have drastic effects on the life course trajectory of an individual, long-term quality of health, and his or her caregiving capacity and availability. Like investment banking, a career in sales & trading on Wall Street faces similar challenges, obstacles, and negative health effects, but the extent of which is much different than that of investment banking.
Sales & Trading is often a separate department within large financial firms, and employees working in the department have unique duties and job responsibilities. An analyst in Sales spends a great deal of time on the telephone, communicating with clients of the firm. The clients include high-net-worth individuals, institutional investors, and corporate finance directors, and the Sales analyst pushes to sell specific strategies and investment products to them. Once the Sales analyst takes an order, it is then sent to the trading desk. An analyst in Trading is the actual person who actually executes the trades for the investment strategy on the stock market or other secondary market. Because employees in Sales and employees in Trading work very similar hours, work closely together, and face many of the same pressures and job challenges, the aging and health effects they face can be examined together.
Analysts in Sales & Trading do not face nearly as extreme of sleep deprivation as investment banking analysts do. Because the United States stock market, as well as bond and other secondary markets, are only open for a set number of hours and on specific days of the week, the work hours for analysts in Sales & Trading are also limited. Sales & Trading analysts will arrive a couple hours before the market opens to prepare for the coming day – read the Wall Street Journal, prepare trades, plan phone calls, etc. Analysts will also stay for a few hours after the closing bell to review the day’s events, make follow-up calls to clients, and Sales will formulate and communicate strategies to Trading. All in all, an analyst in New York might expect to work from 6am to 8pm, yielding 10 hours of time outside of work per day, and with the markets closed on the weekend, weekend visits to the office are uncommon and brief. Compared to investment banking analysts, who can expect to work from 9am to 2am with 7 hours of free time per day, including coming in to work on the weekends, this is a considerable difference.
Not only do the hours yield more time outside the office, but the actual hours themselves allow for a greater opportunity for caregiving and support services. An analyst or higher-up in Sales & Trading with children at least has the chance to spend time or eat dinner with his or her kids, because they are home by 8pm. Investment bankers, on the other hand, are at the office so late that their only chance to even see their kids is early in the morning, and with much longer work weeks, they have less time to do so. For the same reasons, employees in Sales & Trading also have the advantage over Investment Banking in caregiving and assisting their parents, grandparents, and other elders.
At least starting out, analysts in Sales & Trading make quite comparable salaries to that of investment bankers, lessening the financial strain of private assistance services. If their children or older relatives and family members require financial assistance, Sales & Trading professionals face very little difficulty in providing it. It is in the direct caregiving role that Sales & Trading professionals face the greatest challenge, due simply to the lack of time to be there in person for their children, parents, grandparents, and other older relatives. Like investment banking analysts, Sales & Trading analysts also have a high salary and great work experience to put on a resume, which significantly decreases the chances of financial strain in affording private health and support services as they themselves age. Accumulating savings and having the work experience to get promotions and higher-up jobs both make financial strain very nearly a non-issue.
In summary, a career in Sales & Trading demands fewer total work hours per week, as well as better hours of the day spent at the office, than a career in Investment Banking. As a result, Sales & Trading professionals tend to suffer from much less sleep deprivation than professionals in Investment Banking. Sales & Trading professionals also have more time to provide caregiving and support services to their children, grandparents, and other family elders. Investment Banking salaries, which are quite high, are very similar to that of Sales & Trading professionals, so both have little difficulty affording private assistance services for themselves and other dependents as they age.
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