Building Your Personal Network

We traders tend to understate the importance of networking compared to salespeople, bankers and other investment/finance types. In truth though, building your personal network can be one of the most important moves even as a trader. Of course your PnL will speak for itself, but your network can speed up your progress serveral-fold. All new finance analysts/associates should be purposefully building a network of people that will be helpful in the future.

Here's a list of who you should try to befriend:

1) All your salespeople, brokers and/or clients. Depending on your role you will either have sales-coverage, brokers, clients or some combination of the three. They are the first set of people you should befriend. Meet outside work. Go out clubbing/barhopping together. See an occasional movie. Have dinner. The more you interact with these people on a personal level, the better it will be for your current role and for future prospective roles. I can't tell you the number of people I know who made great job changes because their broker, sales-coverage or client decided to either reccommend them or hire them straight-out.

2) Two to three up-and-comming big shots. There are a few on every floor. Those people who are clearly favored by management, are producers, and are about to make it into a big role. Everyone wants to be the corner office's friend, but the easiest way to being on walk-in chat terms with the corner office guy is to be his buddy before he gets there. This takes some speculation and perhaps is a bit calculating, but it can pay off big. I think your best bets are principals/SVPs who are about to make MD or MDs who sit on the floor who are about to get a managerial or C-level position. They tend to be interesting people who make great friends anyway. An extra bonus that they're about to become really important. To some people, this actually comes naturally--the people they befriend tend to become important.

3) The Admins. Have you read the book Monkey Business? I'm sure you have. Well, you know how they say the production people (copiers, printers, binders, mailroom whatever you may call them) need to be your best friend? The floor admin should be your best friend too. On many levels they hold the keys to the floor. They know schedules, events, passwords, relationships, the whole shebang. You can gain a surprising amount of leverage, support and knowledge by having frequent chats with your admins.

4) Rockstar junior people. As you get senior, you want to have the new rockstar analysts and associates be your friend. It's those people who are going to propel into big important roles, so they're worth knowing. Even better, if you befriend them you might eventually get to hire them into your group. The key to a strong franchise is getting the right people.

5) Peers. Know the people from your entering class. They will be with you and grow with you throughout your career. Some of them will continue on to become great people and do great things. Some will remain trusted mates and be around when you need a hand.

6) The office "hotties." Unfortunately this is mostly for guys, and it reflects how chauvinistic and male dominated the industry still is. As wrong as the state of things may be, that doesn't mean you shouldn't take advantage of it. The fact of the matter is the industry is dominated by guys. Guys also respect (consciuosly or unconsciously) guys who are with hot girls. Just being friends with the most attractive girls on the floor and frequently having conversations with them gains the floor's respect. Odd, but true. Okay, maybe not that odd. Just a quirk of society I guess.

Some of these recommendations may seem shallow or calculating, but they are just some part of building your in-house network that I've observed. I'm the least politically correct person I know. I despise office politics. I don't come across as a friendly person. I do, however, respect that there are some rules that can be broken and others that you just need to take advantage of. Just trying to tell it as I've seen it.