1. Fixed income research and analytics group within a good hedge fund (5 billion), work side by side with traders;2. Prime brokerage within top IB.Can you give me some thoughts regarding the future career and mobility of thesetwo jobs? Thanks a lot.

I'm more inclined to pick 1. I have no idea what the bonuses in prime brokerage are, and unless someone tells me otherwise, I'm skeptical of any position with the word "risk" in them.

quantroc,Without knowing any further details, I'd probably say (1). Just because you work at a "top IB" doesn't mean you've written a ticket to riches and/or success. Job content is probably more important than corporate sex appeal.As for thoughts regarding the future, it's very hard to tell even with perfect information, let alone the small bit you've given us. However, like spice said, I'd be inclined to pick (1).

Since HFs became more substantial and perceived not to be a temporary thing, we have seen the large banks becoming more aggressive about using their brand image to attract people.They are not being dishonest, but their role is to persuade, not advise.It may be rational to take a slightly less attractive job to get a good brand on your CV, but the value of that varies enormously.Prime brokerage has been though interesting times at the moment, so based upon sparse data I too go for 1.

Knowing nothing else, I'd pick one....One should be really careful about brand names, because large corporations are federations of groups which have extremely variable quality and extremely variable reputations. It may well be that Group X in big corporation is doing excellent work at the same time that Group Y is a laughing stock both on the street and even within said corporation. Also internal transfers can be surprisingly difficult to pull off.One other thing..... Companies with big brand names can and will use said brand name to convince people to go with a lower salary.