You might consider a smaller step up the ladder and look at someone like AG Edwards.  They appear to have a good level of respect, albeit without Wall Street cachet...

"Can I get in the door at Lehman with a million under management"

With a hundred million AUM.

"should I stop slinging stocks where Im at and give up some money and try to get into a training program??

YES.

I think the ML POA program would have been a good starting point for you.  The thing you realized is that you want to get in the door with a major firm and out of your bucket shop - great starting point.  Now the thing to do is suck it up, go into a training program somewhere to get a start with a well-known company and build from there. 

And don't burn any bridges.  It would certainly suck if that ML gig was the only major firm that came knocking and you blew them away.

I suggest that he has already burned his bridges and will not be able to move to the most reputable firms.  Just ain't gonna happen, no matter what he does.

It is possible to improve your situation, but once you have a rogue brokerage firm on your U-4 you have permanently painted yourself as willing to compromise for expediency and or of questionable ethics.

Additionally, the most reputable firms do NOT want to transfer assets from bucket shops--it's far too easy for a client to end up suing both the bucket shop and the new firm.

This is the biggest mistake young people make trying to get into the business.  They don't have anything to offer a good firm so they accept a job with a schidthouse firm thinking that they'll get their license and some experience.

The problem is managers--and compliance officers for sure--are aware of the crap firms and know that they, the crap firms, teach things that the reputable firm does not believe in and that the crap firm sells stuff that the reputable firms would not allow to be in their clent's accounts.

It's not even easy to do it with "baby steps" like going to a semi-reputable firm, then a reputable firm, and finally a premier firm becuse the premier firm is turned off by the job hopping image your U-4 gives.

The moral is this.  If your goal is to work at a premier wirehouse firm do NOT even apply until you have gained some maturity and a track record somewhere OUTSIDE of the traditional brokeage firm world.

A Merrill manager is far more likely to hire you from New York Life than they would from another brokerage firm of lesser caliber.

The unvarnished reality is that branch managers at the premier wirehouses are (essentially) the same types of people--and people tend to hire in their own image. Therefore you are more likely to be attractive to a manager at Merrill if you are at UBS or Smith Barney or Wachovia than anywhere else.

It's a Catch 22 of sorts--you can't be hired without (the right kind of) experience, and you can't get the experience without being hired at the right kind of place.

Keep in mind that this forum is populated by a handful of people.  Some older, but mostly kids who are just starting out.  They have no idea whether they will make it or not and start screaming when guys like me suggest that they probably won't.

Do it right.  Get your degree(s), go to work as a life insurance guy with a good life insurance company.  Learn to prospect, learn to make the presentation, and learn to CLOSE.  Get married, have a kid, buy a home and when you're about 35 ask somebody around town to slip your name in front of the managers at the local wirehouses.

Hell, if you did it right you may be moving in the same circles as they are anyway.

This is a business that rewards maturity and eats its young.

[quote=broker2333]

Im working at a small firm right now. A small Wall Street firm, and as many of you would refer to as a bucket shop.....How do I get in the door at Lehman, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, anywhere that has a big name??

[/quote]

That ship has probably sailed. I think the best you can do is apply elsewhere "big" and when the manager asks about the bucket shop throw yourself on the mercy of the court, explain your youth and inexperience, that you didn't understand the nature of the palce until you saw it, etc..

Having siad that, the fact that you like it there means the above would be a lie, and given your "F them" attitude towards ML.... well, forget moving to the bigs.

Geezee, another slipped away before a proper prufreadin'.... I need that second cup of coffee....