Advice

I am currently a senior who interned this past summer at a top asset manager (over $1 Tn AUM). This summer was sort of way to “get my foot in the door” and it seemed to work out very well - I made great connections, I learned a ton, and I got the impression I was a valued member of the team. I was emailed about the full-time roles that they would be opening up, and they said the firm is not recruiting for their full-time research internship. This was very unfortunate as I really had had my eye on that. However, there is another position that is similar in some respects to equity research, and is one I am interested in, on the client team. The role mainly consists of meeting with current and potential clients and marketing certain funds and strategies. There’s technical work involved to show the returns, goals, etc. of the fund.

Ultimately, I would love to get into research, and this specific firm is often open to allowing their employees to try new things. Yet, at the same time, I do not want to lose the opportunity to take advantage of other positions outside this farm. Some of the people I worked with told me that one of the best things I could do was go to an IB associate role to gain the technical experience and then come back. I am also interested in the smaller shop I worked at before. I also feel like this role with the client team is definitely one that has benefits and it would allow me to stay at this firm, while giving me an opportunity to possibly transition to the investment team/research role down the road when I have more experience. It can never hurt to throw your hat in the ring so that’s a big reason I am likely going to apply for it, but if you were in this position, what would you recommend someone like myself do.

Thanks.