AM recruitment compared to IB

At investment banks, there is a constant need for a supply of very hardworking people to do endless tasks to support deals, such as making pitchbooks, running models, handling correspondence, etc. and these analysts learn quite a bit. But on the asset management side, the work varies much more depending on the team, the style of management, the investments being managed, and how the team or firm is organized. Analysts might do all kinds of things. In fact, a lot of firms rarely hire inexperienced analysts, because they don't need the volume of personnel a bank does, so they tend to focus on people with experience.  The bigger shops do have internship programs, but in my experience this has not been the most common path to an asset management position. A lot of people come from the sell side, or a ratings agency, hedge funds, academic research, sometimes law or government, or other more varied backgrounds. People often ask how to get a good AM job, and for those of us in the business, there's no simple answer, it's not really such a clear track although there are ways to position yourself for it.

Now if you want to work in AM, my advice is to talk to people who work in AM, and figure out what different people are doing. The one thing they tend to have in common, is that they know how to generate money doing something. So you need to think about where you can get the knowledge and skills to do that.