Should I stay or leave?
Currently a junior in a research team (equities side) of a large AM (Fidelity, BlackRock, PIMCO), contemplating a move to a HF or business school. The place has good placement at top b-schools so I'm wondering if I should stay for a few more years, but I have recently been getting interesting HF opportunities from headhunters.
About the role which is standard for AM:
Pros:
- Hours are good
- A lot to learn from the place
- People are really experienced investors and come from great backgrounds
- Team's culture is friendly
- Great for top b-schools
Cons:
- Pay could be better
- Very long career progression, would take me years to get promoted.
- Not a direct investing role
Is it worth it to move to a HF for better compensation though that may hurt my chances of a top b-school - what should I think about here? I'm still on the fence about if public markets is right for me long term so that muddles the decision, but maybe being in a HF will help me figure that out whilst being paid more.
Sounds like BlackRock. But anyway, you're in research but not a direct investing role? What does that mean exactly because the research guys are the most important at AM's. Also, if you're not currently in a 'direct investing role' what kind of opportunities are you getting from headhunters for HF's?
Agree - it sounds like a move from FO to BO the way you are describing it... can you clarify on the HF opportunity.
It's FO role. Maybe not the right term for it but by not direct investing, I mean I work for an analyst who works for a PM. So I don't feel as integrated in the investment process.
This is pretty standard everywhere. A research associate reports to a lead analyst who then reports to the PM.
I don't know too much about your HF offers but you probably would be doing around the same type of work, and have the same distance from direct investing, if you switched to that, at least until you worked your way up
How many years of experience do you have and what do you want to do long term?
If you want to stay in investment management, in my opinion you are best off interviewing at other shops and eventually jumping ship. A MBA is absolutely not necessary given that you have buy side experience. Whether it's worth it to jump ship or stay put depends upon your comp and career trajectory, but it sounds like you're hit the ceiling at your current firm.
If you aren't sure what you want to do long term, it's probably best to stay put and try to figure things out. From my personal experience, you are not going to "discover yourself" or the meaning of life at a MBA program. In fact, you have to begin recruiting from day one of the MBA, which means you need to know what you want to do long term before even starting the program.
Research associate position feeds nicely into investment analyst roles at hedge funds. Your guys at the AM firm probably want you to do a CFA eventually anyways and a CFA is very valuable in the HF/AM world. MBA is not necessary at any top fund and getting buyside opportunities out of B school is extraordinarily hard.
Learning>comp when you r younger than 30. If you are learning a lot and there is a path toward direct investing role then I would stay, if being analyst/pm is goal. I was in a similar situation but wasn't learning so moved. If you want to be an investor, with exception of PE, MBA is waste of time and will make it harder for you to get lead analyst role because you are already in investment process. You dont need the mba to "reset" your career. You just have to have patience and dedication to prove to current bosses u can handle expanded role.You'd be away from markets for 2 years and be competing against a lot of well qualified people. You should only jump from big AM shop for well funded and tenured fund. Imo
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