The most vigorous 27 year-old trader at Morgan Stanley. Worst paid job in international finance

There are fit and healthy 27 year-old traders. And there are ultra-marathon runners who run into the office at 6am wearing a 26 pound backpack. Sergey Ionov is one of the latter.

We've reported on the strange correlation between working in financial services and running ultra marathons before. Anything from 20% to 30% of the participants in these grueling events work in finance. Ionov is among them.

"At the end of the day you go to the medical check-point and have the swarms of ticks you’ve collected somewhere in the swamps removed from your skin,” he tells FinBuzz of his 250km six day run through Brazil. Ionov prepared for the experience by running into Morgan Stanley's London office carrying the heavy backpack and wearing wet shoes. If you don't inure your feet to the damp you can, "have a whole leg turning into a huge blister," he says.

All of this is apparently good for your career. "I normally work 12 hours in a row and get very tired. It helps you to relax and even find better solutions to work-related problems,” says Ionov. Running ultra marathons and raising money for charity also makes colleagues think better of you: "They know you have achieved something great in spheres of life other than finance and at the same time you are able to fulfill your daily duties professionally.” Anyone else thinking of running through swamps is advised to 'just do it' and have a consistent training plan.

Separately, the Financial Times has unearthed a poorly paid job at the helm of international finance. Admittedly, it's in academia rather than actual financial services, but the job title is assistant professor in international political economy at the prestigious London School of Economics. The pay? $80k. As the FT points out, high London property prices mean you'd be hard pressed to live near to work on that.

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