fixed income career

Hi everyone, you all have helped me before and I would like some advice now. I am currently working in trading right now in New York, but I have come to realize that trading is not for me. I want to be more on the investment side. I have been offered a position with a fixed income investment firm as an analyst, and I think I am going to take it. I think fixed income is very interesting and I am excited about the opportunity. My question is what would the career path look like? Obviously I could stay here and move up to portfolio manager. I might be able to make the jump to a hedge fund. I also plan on getting an MBA from a top tier school. Would I be able to make the jump to private equity, VC, or distressed debt investing? Just curious, thanks for the help.

 

I actually found it on LinkedIn. One of the head guys has a similar background to mine so he and I hit it off. I think .LinkedIn is one of the best resources to find a job. Also call to follow up, out of 1000 that applied I was one of very few that called.

 

Getting your MBA would be a good way to open a few doors for yourself. If you like the firm, you could always stay, go to school part-time and get promoted after you get your degree. It would probably take about 10 years to get to a true PM role if you are starting out from scratch. You might be able to do some PM support work after (PM, but following manager's advice and investment strategy) about 5 years, maybe less since you have trading experience. These are all estimates and it varies. Once you have an MBA (if you go part-time), you can always change shops to do something different or to get a promotion. If you are applying for a full-time program, then you can move into PE or whatever other buyside role you want but it will be, as expected, difficult. Although I would argue that it will be easier compared to have zero experience as an analyst.

PM is great, but involves a lot of administrative work.. not sure why so many people are so gung-ho to be a PM. Except for the published salary statistics they read, of course.

 

Hey youngblood90, I'm the WSO Monkey Bot and I am sad to say, but this thread is lonely, so thought I'd post in here to try and help out. Some potential topics that might help:

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Bill Gross is obviously a know-nothing POS. Nobody would ever look up to him. It's not like he became a billionaire or anything, or vaulted PIMCO into the top tier of AM. Please, some people even think that there was a time where PTTRX was the largest fund on the face of planet earth.

/s -I'm in Equities.

The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.
 
Best Response

I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you speak to working FI at a BB. Do you mean a desk? Working in Asset Management? It's an extremely robust and broad asset class

With respect to prestige, I don't think there's an appropriate answer to give here. All groups are quite reputable and well respected, and will each case give you unique experiences and skillsets. The degree to which you want to work in FI depends heavily on what you are looking to get out of it and the type of work you would like to do in the future.

Do you have an affinity to reading about fixed income valuation? do you take a liking to things such as bond convexity/duration, among others? It might be a good area for you in this case.

In my view, you never should base a decision of working off prestige, as it rarely works out well. OTOH, going to a reputable shop, being in a decent group, and producing superior work product will help get you to where you need to be so you can decide the next steps of your career later on :)

There's a closer meaning to my user name. Try reading it quickly. Perhaps you will then understand ;P
 
Dreizzy:

I'm sure you've already seen this, but BlackHat made a really good topic posting in the Asset Management sub-forum.

//www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/life-at-a-to...

It goes over what to expect on the job and how recruitment is. I haven't been able to find a more comprehensive resource than that, so I'm interested in this as well.

thank you!

 

One way of making this happen is a move within your current company. Can you get to know the head of the FI group and check to see if there is an opening in near future. This likely would be your best bet.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but my company is not a financial institution. I would have to change companies. I am ok with starting at the bottom, but the problem is getting the interview. All I can think of is attending CFA events. Even then, once people see my background has been mostly in accounting, it would be tough to break into fixed income.

I'm open to any thoughts/suggestions.

 

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