E&F Investment Roles Landscape
Wanted to get a current feel for the E&F investment role landscape and the potential/difficulties to break-in.
Currently in IB as an Associate and I have significant allocator experience pre-MBA working at both a SWF and an Insurance company.
A couple of questions from me:
- What level would a typical profile above be able to break into and E&F currently?
- How is the job market in the investment space at the E&F (more/less/normal rotation in personnel across the space)?
- What does a typical interview process look like? Typical case study look like?
- Should I focus more on endowments vs foundations or vice-versa to break-in at this current moment?
- Broad (I know it varies) comp buckets for Associate / Senior Assoc. / Investment Manager / Investment Officer in Boston / NYC / DC (MD, VA) areas?
- Any further color people have to share about the space and breaking in would be greatly appreciated!
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Just interviewed with a lot of E&Fs (opted for a different direction ultimately).
Seems to me that most seem to have two big entry points, "entry level" analyst/associate with two years - four years of experience or vice president/investment officer level candidates (usually anywhere from six to ten years of experience). The E&F field is pretty specialized. All the senior investment directors/CIOs I interviewed with (at prestigious 5bn + endowments/foundations/hospitals) all had been in the E&F space for at least ten years.
The main thing they all acknowledged is that this is a lifestyle gig so while you may only make 300k + 50-100k bonus as a investment director with 20 years of experience, the trade off is a 9-5 job.
The job market was fairly strong as they tend to be fairly insulated given the perpetual nature of the investments.
Interview process varied but I had two distinct types of experiences.
1) purely behavioral/high level investment discussions with everyone on the team (pretty easy to do given E&Fs only have like 5-10 investment professionals)
2) behavioral to start followed by an excel test (making charts, pretty basic index match etc.) and due diligence case studies.
The big thing I saw (which I don't think you would have an issue with) is that they were very open to hiring someone without manager due diligence experience and teach them up.
Thanks for the response. Mich appreciated. Two quick follow-ups:
1. Can you share any additional info on the due diligence case studies? Structure, length, etc.
2. What did you end up taking instead (LO AM, HF, etc.)?
Feel free to PM if you'll feel more comfortable sharing there.
1. Due diligence case studies generally followed the same structure. Gave an excel with different hypothetical managers and their returns, holding data, etc and was asked to try and put together a recommendation on which manager to select. The general answer was to calculate returns, risk, manager sizing etc. Some specified what they wanted to see others instructed me to put together what would be most helpful.
2) LO AM (what I have been in)
Got it! Thanks.
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