My first job out of undergrad was on the Lehman Brothers interest rate sales desk. I sat on a trading floor amongst some of the best financial professionals who transacted multi-million dollar deals on a daily basis. The work was incredibly stressful and required a tremendous amount of attention to detail and accuracy. If you made a mistake, it typically cost at least $50,000. I worked in a team consisting of 3 senior salesmen, an associate with three years of experience and myself – a clueless college grad. At first, no one trusted me to do much of anything except get coffee and make copies. Over time, I began to take on more client facing responsibilities (writing trade confirms, answering phones and writing market commentary). Executing one of those multi-million dollar trades was off limits though. I didn’t have the skills yet, and no one was interested in losing money due to my lack of experience.