[jyl]

I don't know anything about retail brokers.

Institutional salespeople usually, not always, have MBAs and started in the business in their twenties. There is usually a lot of travel required, they are often away from home 50% of the time. You have to know a lot about stocks and markets and finance, or rather to appear to know a lot, and sound like you're on top of things. Also need to be a fast study, able to learn about an investment idea and pitch it to clients right away. Normal salesman skills required as well.

Analysts usually have MBAs. They may start fresh from the MBA program and start in a junior position, or in some cases they come later in life, from a background in the industry that they cover. Generally the job involves a lot of financial analysis, Excel modeling, research, digging for information, etc. Being in front of a screen 12 hours a day, etc. If you like figuring out why hops prices are rising, forecasting how much they will rise, then estimating the impact on the gross margins of BUD and SAM, then whether one is a long and the other a short, that kind of thing, then it is an interesting job. I suspect it is an acquired taste.

Analysts can be buyside, meaning they work for the money management companies, or sellside, meaning they work for the brokerages. The senior sellside analysts work very hard, travel more than half the time, and increasingly they have less job security. The junior analysts (assistants, or associates) work hard and do a lot of grunt work. The buyside analysts usually don't travel as much, but it varies. It is difficult to go directly into a buyside job, often analysts do their time on the sellside first. In general, job security in this industry is decreasing, and its not unusual for people to change jobs every few years. The hedge fund guys change jobs every year, it seems like.

Realistically, I think you'd need to go back to school to have a decent chance at getting into this business. Which might not be a terrible thing - going back to school that is - I went back to the MBA program at 34.