Dear Juniper: Bold or bashful?

I am a sellside analyst with three years' experience. I work in a large sector team at a big investment bank. The team is at the top of the rankings in our sector and the glory quite rightly goes to the team leader. After all, she built it all up and it is her name that the clients all recognise.

I have been given a few stocks of my own to follow and a few smaller clients to cultivate and I have had a couple of bits of success. I rated one stock a "Sell" just before the price collapsed and on the back of this and one or two other things, we got some business.

Now I have been offered the chance to move to another firm and set up my own team. They are offering a good package and say that they will help me hire other analysts to work alongside a specialist salesperson and me.

I wonder whether they are over-estimating my experience and ability and also whether they have a big enough reputation with clients for me to succeed. On the other hand, with the industry environment being the way it is, what with lay-offs and low bonuses, the prospect of a guaranteed deal, even for a year, is appealing.

Do I stay or go?

Yours, Uncertain

Dear Uncertain,

List your answers about the upside and downside of each option and put it in the context of what you want longer term, not just your security for next year.

Study two things: the firm and yourself. You wonder whether the firm has a big enough reputation for you to succeed. Undoubtedly, working for a firm that is not on everyone's dealing list makes it more difficult to get established. No matter how good you are, if the firm is not a good marking name with clients or if the support that you could expect from related areas such as sales and trading is not there, you will struggle.

Look at the surveys to see how they are rated in these areas. Are there any examples of research teams doing well from this platform? If you want to be a rated analyst and no one else has ever been rated while working there, the odds are loaded against you. If, on the other hand, there are examples of sector teams that are making it with clients, then you can be reasonably confident that you too will succeed.

As for yourself, they say that he who hesitates is lost and I wonder why you are in such a quandary? Things seem rosier for you than they do for many others in the industry right now, so why the self-doubt about striking out? Three years' experience is not much, but the people wanting to hire you will have factored that in and it sounds as though in your heart of hearts you want to find out if you can do it on your own.

If the platform is right, be bold not bashful.

Juniper

The Two-Step

I am a section head in IT at a commercial bank. I have been here for several years and have seen many senior people come and go around me. They come in for three years with a new plan that is usually to do with giving the business what it really wants.

They talk to the business heads, draw up a specification, get budget approval and we start to implement. Then either the business head leaves or they do while the rest of us end up trying to make the best out of someone else's plans.

The upshot is a hotchpotch of half-built systems, wasted budgets and a front office that complains because they still don't have what they want.

I have been overlooked for the head of IT job in our division more than once, yet feel that I have been here long enough to be given a try. I am the only one with any perspective on what the problems and the solutions are but no one ever asks my views.

I don't want to leave because that would mean wasting the knowledge that I have invested in this company but I am getting fed up being ignored.

Is there a way round this or is the only way out?

Yours, Des

Dear Des,

Yours is a two-step solution with "out" as a third and, I hope, unnecessary step. First, why are you waiting to be asked? You have to make your views known to the people to whom you report and who make the hiring decisions. There is no point in bottling up ideas and burning up inside when you see others waste time and resources.

When you do speak out try to be dispassionate about your frustrations, avoid direct criticism of people and distil the issues into a few concise points. A proposal supported by six bullet points might be a good way to capture initial interest.

The second step depends on the response to the first. If your contribution is valued and acknowledged, then sit tight. If you are ignored, then try to find out why: was the problem with the ideas or the presentation? That can then lead on to a discussion about why you have been passed over.

It will help you to understand whether the problem lies with your technical skills or leadership potential. Once you know where the problem is, a solution can follow. Here's to the two-step.

Good news

Juniper

After writing to you about a pay discrepancy between me and a mate, I took your advice and tackled my boss about it even though my friend has refused to speak to me since.

You are right that things will correct over time. I can expect a promotion as well as a catch-up raise later this year, apparently.

So - thanks, Jim

Dear Jim,

Good news, apparently.