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Hi Guys,I have received an offer from Societe Generale New York to work as a trader on an Exotic Credit Derivatives desk. It's a a team of 5 people, including 3 traders, a structurer and a IT guy. I was wondering if any one of you had some information about SG in NY, their credit derivatives business, the possible evolution in the bank (compared to a US IB).To give an overview of my background, I have a french "diplome of Grande Ecole", and I am currently in the Master in Mathematical Finance Program at NYU. I had 2 internships in IB, and in particular one on a trading desk in London.Another question I want to ask is : how much money can I expect to get?Thanks for your answers

Well done on your offerI've heard quite a lot of good things about SocGen's credit derivatives business. They are quite active in the CDO (synthetic) markets and are quite quantitative (so the masters should come in handy).Minal

Thanks!Any other opinion?

don't know about the money, but from what i've heard sg is a great company to work for. while they're not as broad as some of the major investment banks, in the areas that they are, they are top-notch, particularly derivatives in general

hi,SG is particularly active and innovative in equity derivatives fields, with its so-dedicated biz DAI (often awarded as the best Eqty Der House of the Year by IFR, Risk, The Banker (in 2004 for instance)), part of SG CIBthey just acquired part of BoA's hedge fund structured products dpt a few weeks ago in the US, so their NY base should expand...Seen their range of products I presume they also have a solid Credit Der dpt esp. with their leading position in the HF structured products industrythx

They have recently bought some activities of Bank of America in EQD.The activity will improve

They are very good at equity derivatives, leading the evolution of new structures. Their contribution to the profit of the IB is very high (around 90%), which says a great deal about the bank's views on business.In the parts of the business SG are serious about they are very good (if not world leading), in other parts they are a joke.I think other asset classes than equity are treated like ugly stepsisters.However, once they are integrating the divisions I think the equity-credit products will have very good potential. (This can take time given the politics of the French banks. Just have a look at the mess created by the merger of CL and Agricole. Now that everyone either killed each other off or defected things seem to improve.)As monlavingia says they are quantitative and therefore I think you should go for it!

What about the salary? Houw much do u think I should ask?

I dont know for NY, but in france sg is known to less give to the debutant lvl (fix part) ...

SocGen in Credit Derivatives show a strong potential and the team is nice and pretty good.@ChrisPat: What makes you think they are leader in the HF structured products industry? Do you refer to CD+EQ, or Credit Derivatives only or Equity Derivatives only? Regarding the salary, you are in no-position to demand whatsoever They have a grid and dependding on the school you are coming from you will be offered a salary. Not a lot of flexibility just like in other banks. Edit: my salary comment was made under the assumption that it is a level entry position. Is it ?

hi hotone,I mean SG tries to expand its EqDer success to the (fund of) HF structured products industry and the recent operation with BoA's FoF structured prod branch tends to prove they want to access a (more) competitivz position.sg has clearly an image of innovative bank (engineering teams), but in size it s still not a top-tier bank (compared to citi, csfb) ... thx

SG will integrate the new businees with Lyxor AM, the internal hedge fund of SG, which is also highly ranked.

hi lincaren1,r u sure I read they were integrated into SG CIB / DAI biz not Lyxor ? maybe Lyxor is a part of DAI ?thx

As far as I understand, Lyxor is a subsidiary of Societe Generale and not part of DAI (I think it is called DEAI btw). Until now, the main function of Lyxor is to provide the underlying to fund derivatives. The advantage of course is that SG has full control over the HF managers.To be honest , I don't know about their plans for the BofA unit.

well there were just a few comments on that operation, I ll try to know and give you detailsthx