Looking for honest advice

Hello everyone! First post here. I was hoping to get some honest and direct advice on my career goals and aspirations.

A little background. I am 34. I have a BS in Accounting and am currently in the middle of a two-year MBA program from a decent business school (think Villanova, University of Texas, Loyola). I made a career change two years ago into Private Wealth Management from medical sales, and took basically an entry-level position to make the change. I have performed well in my position and have made a slight name for myself in my market. I am currently with a large bank (think JPM, Wells, BofA).

I am looking to advance my career into portfolio management, hopefully with my current firm, and eventually fund management. I know this will be a long and arduous road, and I will have to play catch-up and keep up with people younger than me, but I am willing to work my ass off to get what I want (it just took me a little longer than others to figure out what that was).

I would like to know if what I want is possible, who I should be talking, what the right path or best path is, and anything thing else I can do to help my cause. Please feel free to be direct and honest. Anything that anyone can offer will be helpful. Thank you in advance!

edit: I hope I posted this in the right place, and I apologize in advance for not knowing all the abbreviations.

9 Comments
 

1) Use US news for your school rankings

2) Is PWM really where you want to be? Or is that the first thing you found? It's basically a sales job...which suits your background, but you don't really do anything analytical in the long run.

3) When you say portfolio management, is your eventual goal to end up at a fund? Or are you content managing IRA's and rebalancing trusts at Merrill Lynch...sorry if it comes off as condescending, not trying to be

 

SF_Reg, not condescending at all. I appreciate direct feedback.

  1. Thanks for the advice on rankings. My program is an accelerated part-time program. However it is the school's only offering. As such, all graduate resources are dedicated to the accelerated program. The undergrad school is very strong. This makes it a little tricky to make comparisons.

  2. PWM is not where I want to be. I took an open opportunity for a career change and got a foot in the door playing to my strengths.

  3. My end goal is to definitely end up at a fund making investment decisions.

 

Not sure what to say...except to use OCR to your advantage (if you have access) and network with as many alumni as you can to get your foot in the door. Usually I'd say go to bschool for a restart, but since you're already doing a pt program, then just use the resources you have at your disposal.

PWM will pigeon hole you into a very specific skillset, and it's hard to lateral over to other areas of finance after getting a niche there. However, if that's what you're good at, and you can succeed in it then by all means put your best foot forward.

 

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