Hi, I heard something negative about risk management. Such as the income is low, even lower than that of IT guys sometimes. They do not have many exit options. They are not valued by business schools if they want to go for an MBA. Are they all true?
Then what is the upside of it?
First of all, "bad job"? Is the quality of the job solely based on income? Forget Risk Management, let's compare Risk IT and the most coveted job on Wall Street, Investment Banking:
Risk IT, Analyst level
Entry Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Job Pressure: Medium/Low
Pay: $75k post bonus
Hours/Day: 9
252*9 = 2268 hours/year
$75k/2268 = $33/hour
Investment Banking, Analyst Level
Entry Difficulty: Insane
Job Pressure: Very High
Pay: $140k post bonus
Hours/Day: 18
252*18 = 4536 hours/year
$140k/4536= $31/hour
Excluding future career, IT gets paid more per hour, has much less stress, and has a much easier time finding a job. Why is this "bad" again?
Now moving on to Risk Management. I started in Risk IT and moved into Market Risk at a top bank. Here are the facts:
1. Base is the same as IT, bonus is much more. Starting off your bonus will roughly double ITs, but this will increase in scale.
2. Hours are slightly more than IT. About 1-2 hours more a day; depends on your group
3. More enjoyable work. Pretty low pressure, and depending on your group it can actually be quite fun
4. The best job security in the world. Even if you leave where you are risk is in such high demand you will get placed in weeks.
5. Exits ops ARE low. You can move around from Market to Credit to Op risk. Moving out of risk is essentially a career reset.
6. MBAs will most certainly respect a risk position at a big bank!