Has anyone landed an analyst/associate role in Asset Mgmt or Equity Research with no experience? How?
Economics grad. No internships. CFA level 1 candidate, awaiting results. Itching to land a career in research in Asset Management, equity research, with a long-term goal of being a portfolio manager.
Those that have been in similar situation, how did you do it?
Smaller AM's will always need junior folks. I started on a 10-person firm out of college with very little experience.
Make a list of local smaller AM's and start calling away. PM me with specific Q's.
I came from an absolute garbage school (70% acceptance rate, one investment class, went for a sport) so I really had no chance of going direct out of undergrad. So my strategy was to take jobs that each got me one step closer.
My path: Started at an insurance company where I got my 7, 66 (all commission, joke job for someone out of college but sponsored me for the licenses), then went into a client facing role at a one of the larger brokerages and passed CFA level 1 while I was there. From there I went to my current company researching funds for the Asset Management arm of an insurance company. After a year of that I jumped onto the equity team and now I cover a sector and we run a full active value fund internally.
As my manager in that first job used to say, "just another spoke on the wheel" (when talking about selling different things to people) but I took that idea and applied it to creating a background for myself. By getting the 7/66 and passing level 1 it showed that I was committed to breaking in and had a real interest. By jumping to the big brokerage, even though it wasn't direct experience, it was still a solid brand name on the resume and public equity market exposure. Then jumping to fund research I added that research piece to my puzzle even though I still wasn't researching companies like I wanted to be, it was just another spoke on the wheel. I made sure that I expressed up front what I wanted to be doing long term and when the position opened up I was in there. It was really good timing/luck that I joined when I did and that the guy who covered my sector before me left when he did, but I put my self in the position to be able to capitalize on that opportunity, it didn't just fall into my lap.
If you come from the kind of school I came from its absolutely an uphill battle but its doable if you stay committed and keep adding to your wheel. Every time I jumped to a new position I never stopped applying to things and I was putting applications in every night besides the period of time that I studied for level 1. Its a numbers game, you just gotta keep grinding out applications, making contacts on linkedin, and keep your eyes open. The way it worked with my company was that they had posted the job and I applied same day because literally there wasn't anything getting posted that I wasn't seeing right away because I was constantly checking for new posts on linkedin, the job boards, specific company portals that I was interested in. I applied on a Monday, phone screen Tuesday, in person Wed, offer on Thurs and then two weeks later I was working there. I got in there first before they had a chance to interview anyone else and it was just a good fit and I said all the right things, but again, I wouldn't have been in that position to jump on it had I not been so active in my pursuit. You just have to be opportunistic like that and if you have your eyes open you'll find something. I went on a bunch of interviews and had tons of phone screens that went no where but every time I added a spoke I would get more of them and I would get further in the process. Its really demoralizing to get rejected so many times but you gotta keep going, when I was in that first sales job they would say go out and get your "no's" for the day, the more "no's" you get the closer you are to a yes. Also the more interviews and phone screens you have and go on, the better you get at them, so I would really just recommend to grind it out. It's a straight up numbers game for guys from no name schools. I would also say that if you come from a background like I did and want to try my approach, you should target accounting positions. Accounting is directly applicable and every time I went on an interview for a research position they would ask me about an accounting internship I had while in school as much, if not more than whatever my current position at the time was. It also seemed to me that it was easier to get interviews for those types of positions.
Now I'm doing my dream job, love the company, and I'm actually paid surprisingly well. I'll finish up the CFA and take the GMAT to see if I can jump to a bigger fund doing the same thing for more money. I honestly might not leave though because I've been told they'll keep moving me along pay wise and it should compound nicely over time. There's also very low turnover here and performance has been good over the longer term.
That's my story anyways and my advice. Feel free to ask me anything, good luck!
This is really inspiring man, congrats.
Thanks man, I literally had 0 advantage over other people for the jobs that I was applying to so if I can do it, anyone can.
I agree with the guy below who basically says do investment research.
I would argue that "most" asset managers or ER firms or hedge funds for that matter (not necessarily the biggest names, but all of the other firms other there) hire on a relatively ad hoc basis. We generally have a tolerance for inexperience. I think that this is very true for the name firms as well, but it is nice if you can talk about PEs or EBITDA multiples with some coherence, or discuss the merits of one sector vs another, or acknowledge an earnings report from the last week or two. If you can do these things it tells us that you have spent considerable time and thought on following the industry, but this also requires a lot of seasoning.
Single stock investment research serves the same purpose, and to me the deeper you go the better. I, by far, prefer immense depth to immense breadth. This is the less time intensive way to show dedication - as opposed to trying to cram knowledge of recent earnings or memorize a few things about sectors/valuation metrics. Depth reveals attention to detail, fortitude and clarity of thought.
Beyond your dedication to the industry, I want really smart people. Show off your GPA or SAT/ACT or whatever else makes you look smart. Again, many people won't have this for various reasons so that's where research comes in. The last element is willingness to work hard. This is also generally addressed with your research. I guess another element is personality or temperament. Evenness is valued.
I am talking my book here, as I got my AM job with no experience but showing off my stock research and with a 3.9 GPA. It took a while though, several months of networking. In my interviews (3 of them) I talked about a couple of stocks I had done deep research on. They gave me a few more to research over a two week period and "discuss" at my third interview. I gave them a 50 page PowerPoint with 10+ pages on each stock, explaining the history of each company and what I thought they could deliver moving forward. It probably took close to two hours to get through, much more than they had expected.
In hindsight, some of the conclusions were naive, but they couldn't turn me down for the other candidates doing the same. They have told me since. They liked one or two of the others, but none had produced anything close to the depth and presentation quality. It really is difficult to ignore. If you find yourself in a position to do a pitch, that is a really powerful position. Yeah one guy might have the looks and the pedigree and the personality, but great research is really what we want. Make our jobs easier.