Jul 11, 2025

OCIO?

Playboi Carti's picture
Playboi Carti
Orangutan ?
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Gonna be entering the asset management space in the near future as an analyst at an OCIO that manages about $100-$150 billion dollars of capital. Will be sitting on the private markets team in a junior allocator (i guess that’s the best way to describe it) role that invests into growth equity, buyout, crossover, and venture funds. Had a few questions about the space if anyone could provide some answers:

  • What does career progression look specifically in this role? How does this role stack up for MBA recruiting (I noticed lots of coworkers went M7)?

  • How is the client facing the exposure? This is what i’m the most excited about. I’m excited to have dinners and meetings with billionaire fund managers to pick their brain a bit. Is that a thing at the junior level in this career?

  • If there is anyone else specifically in one of these roles, what are the best and worst parts of the job? WLB seems to be pretty good and i’ll be working 45–55 hours a week it seems outside of travel.

  • Any skills that I should be prepare to touch up on in this role?

Also, looking 20 years in the future (because i’m interested in the career path), how does this space stack up? I was thinking it was favorable since some fund types might falter or become obsolete over the years, but investment funds will always need capital so…

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Addinator - Certified Professional
Human AM
10mo
Most Helpful

Very familiar w/ the OCIO space - my firm's OCIO business is not quite that large, unfortunately, but in the top 20 in the space. I've not sat in that seat directly, however, have been around and within the OCIO business at various points in my career. 

  •  I'll start with the bigger picture around the OCIO space, looking out 20 years, it will trend IMO the same way most of the Asset Management space has. The landscape is consolidating across the board to the point you have basically the following - Bank owned providers, the 'consultants' (i.e. mercer, WTW, Callan - who both consult and OCIO), then smaller more niche providers like commonfund - the smaller ones, both older consultant only shops and some of the independents, are all being aggregated up. I expect that to continue - there's not much room for vanilla, middle of the road, $20-30b providers who cater to anyone and everyone - that's a challenging model. Especially given the banks can offer a host of services (assuming they don't spin it to a stand alone RIA which creates some challenges) aside from just OCIO - pairing off things like planned giving. That's really the long term trend - how many additional services can you offer an asset owner to encourage them to outsource vs. in-source. Fee compression is real as well - it's somewhat insulated vs. other spaces - but it's ground down nonetheless. Thus the reality, in aggregate, is that you'll have more consolidation with fewer seats -  OCIO's are in some ways the ultimate middle man adding more layers of fees, on top of manager fees, on top of other fees. There is a ton of value, IMO, for the OCIO model in the middle market space up to a certain size - after that, it's challenging for anyone but the largest of OCIO providers to make a dent - as they can offer all of the services, research, and get actual access to the best managers - in the privates space, that's basically the entire game as otherwise you end with a mediocre manager paying through the nose, for mediocre returns, and might as well just index the damn thing. At a firm the size of yours, I think it's a good place to be as you will have access to a huge amount of managers/options - probably a host of ancillary services to offer into asset owners - along with a brand name, and the ability to be fee competitive with a host of resources.
  • In large part, from manager research, the primary route would be to do some time at the OCIO and then you could jump to another, switch what asset class you cover, or head over to an asset owner. Depending on how the team is structured, you may have an asset allocation/portfolio construction team - that's more focused holistically on macro trends, your capital market assumptions, tactical tilts away from baseline (i.e. over/underweight various segements of a 60/40 - over top of the manager selection underneath). I've seen folks move around within - or sometimes can move to a smaller asset owner as a CIO eventually. They tend to be pretty sticky roles, where folks will stay in them as the WLB is good, pay is pretty good, and if I'm being frank - tends to be less stressful than, say, what life is like at the underlying managers.
  • What exposure you get will vary as a junior analyst. Some will throw you right in, talking to managers, doing due diligence, participating in meetings or calls. I'm not sure you'll be meeting Ray Dalio - but at that size, I'd suggest your firm will have some pretty good access you will get exposure to as you go.
  • My advice on the skill side - get extremely good at writing, presenting, and making the complex sound simple or flexing to the audience. Especially if you do get pulled into client meetings, prospect meetings, or similar to talk specifically about your coverage/managers alongside relationship managers - this is a big differentiator. 

Anyway - just a few thoughts. Congratulations, should be an exciting role to jump into. Happy to share any other thoughts as well if helpful. 

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ThatCommsMajor's picture
Baboon AM
10mo

Congrats on the role! I have been in an allocator role for a few years now (albeit at a large endowment and not an OCIO, but a lot will be the same).

  1. "What does career progression look specifically in this role? How does this role stack up for MBA recruiting (I noticed lots of coworkers went M7)?"
    1. Business school: I have seen a lot of great B-school exits, with the nature of the role (GP & LP/asset owner facing, the wide array of experiences, and the depth of understanding the financial industry at a high level [how LPs are structured, the economics of a GP, how to track talent flows, understanding different strategies and how to analyze them, and the network you build]) playing well for the adcoms. It also helps that this is an area with fewer heads than banking, private equity, or consulting, so you will be well-positioned to be more differentiated than the three hundredth 2+2 PE associate that the adcom has seen.
    2. Bit of an aside, but now more than ever an MBA is not needed if you want to stay in an LP role. If you want credentialing, the CFA is the gold standard. If you want branding, work for an high profile allocator (Yale/Harvard/Soros/MITIMCO). If you want a better network, you should be well-positioned to do it from an LP role. The last part is the most debatable, as the network you could build in venture or growth equity at Stanford is likely better than you could do in those 2 years staying at an OCIO (same thing with buyout and control-oriented growth managers that HBS). This really only holds for H/S and maybe Wharton though.  
  2. How is the client facing the exposure? This is what i’m the most excited about. I’m excited to have dinners and meetings with billionaire fund managers to pick their brain a bit. Is that a thing at the junior level in this career?
    1. I can't comment on this for the OCIO world, but I have been very surprised at how great the access to very high profile investors are. If you show that you are professional, thoughtful, demonstrate genuine interest in the GP, can provide support* to a GP, and are at a well-respected firm, you may be surprised the circle that you are able to run in. Being in NYC helps for buyout, and being in SF really helps for venture and growth equity investing.
  3. If there is anyone else specifically in one of these roles, what are the best and worst parts of the job? WLB seems to be pretty good and i’ll be working 45–55 hours a week it seems outside of travel.
    1. Best part: Engaging with some of the world's most ambitious and talented investors and being able to be part of their value-creation journey (I like to view it as I am a guy putting coal into steam engines (GPs) and it is my job to pick which engine has the highest horsepower). The people I work with are hard-working, kind, thoughtful people, which is something I appreciate a lot after my banking days where that was not the case. Plus the mission of an endowment is pretty solid - I went to college on a full ride, and now get to work on creating more scholarship, professorships, and supporting the best tool for upward economic mobility in the country.   
    2. Worst part: Vibes based venture allocators. They make me lose braincells every time I have to engage with them.  
  4. Any skills that I should be prepare to touch up on in this role?
    1. Will circle back to this (have to stop typing for now)
  5. Also, looking 20 years in the future (because i’m interested in the career path), how does this space stack up? I was thinking it was favorable since some fund types might falter or become obsolete over the years, but investment funds will always need capital so…
    1. This really depends on what winning the game looks like for you. The way to win the game - if you are focused on wealth - is to survive to MD/partner. There is a mountain of ivy->top EB/BB-> BX/APO/CG/TPG-> H/S/W people that end up burning out and leaving finance before seeing the level of salary that drew them into that career path in the first place. The risk of burnout at an LP is low. LP roles are very stable, low stress, great WLB, intellectual interesting, have the ability to do a lot of travel. Plus, while the money is not GP-level, it will do the job. The tenured MDs at my firm make low single digits millions and this is the case for most of the other $10+ or $20+ billion endowment (and probably the same for Soros/Willett/HHMI/etc.). 

Another aside: What separates the CIOs / top MDs from the investment directors that bounce around shop to shop struggling to get promoted is their access. If you are a venture-focused MD that can get whatever LP you join into Sequoia, Index, Accel, Benchmark, Founders Fund (and Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross... oh wait, nevermind), the world is yours for the taking. Focus on developing real relationships with up and coming high potential mid career people at GPs in your early days as a junior allocator. My roledex is pretty small for my peer cohort (25ish people at GPs and a half a dozen staff at other endowments I can trade notes with), but a resource that massively has paid dividends - increased access, early notice of spin-outs, private details on why people left / who are the best partners at select firms. I even have my eye on one of them to seed if he ever spin-outs from his current firm. The ability to engage with world class investors (case in point, every quarter I speak with the founder of a GP worth mid-single digit billions on how he views the macro and the EM investing environment, where I get to learn a lot from a 30+ year veteran of the industry) and getting to fund the next generation of leading investment managers is such an incredible part of the job. 

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high hopes - Certified Professional
Almost Human PE
10mo

ThatCommsMajor

Congrats on the role! I have been in an allocator role for a few years now (albeit at a large endowment and not an OCIO, but a lot will be the same).

  1. "What does career progression look specifically in this role? How does this role stack up for MBA recruiting (I noticed lots of coworkers went M7)?"
    1. Business school: I have seen a lot of great B-school exits, with the nature of the role (GP & LP/asset owner facing, the wide array of experiences, and the depth of understanding the financial industry at a high level [how LPs are structured, the economics of a GP, how to track talent flows, understanding different strategies and how to analyze them, and the network you build]) playing well for the adcoms. It also helps that this is an area with fewer heads than banking, private equity, or consulting, so you will be well-positioned to be more differentiated than the three hundredth 2+2 PE associate that the adcom has seen.
    2. Bit of an aside, but now more than ever an MBA is not needed if you want to stay in an LP role. If you want credentialing, the CFA is the gold standard. If you want branding, work for an high profile allocator (Yale/Harvard/Soros/MITIMCO). If you want a better network, you should be well-positioned to do it from an LP role. The last part is the most debatable, as the network you could build in venture or growth equity at Stanford is likely better than you could do in those 2 years staying at an OCIO (same thing with buyout and control-oriented growth managers that HBS). This really only holds for H/S and maybe Wharton though.  
  2. How is the client facing the exposure? This is what i’m the most excited about. I’m excited to have dinners and meetings with billionaire fund managers to pick their brain a bit. Is that a thing at the junior level in this career?
    1. I can't comment on this for the OCIO world, but I have been very surprised at how great the access to very high profile investors are. If you show that you are professional, thoughtful, demonstrate genuine interest in the GP, can provide support* to a GP, and are at a well-respected firm, you may be surprised the circle that you are able to run in. Being in NYC helps for buyout, and being in SF really helps for venture and growth equity investing.
  3. If there is anyone else specifically in one of these roles, what are the best and worst parts of the job? WLB seems to be pretty good and i’ll be working 45–55 hours a week it seems outside of travel.
    1. Best part: Engaging with some of the world's most ambitious and talented investors and being able to be part of their value-creation journey (I like to view it as I am a guy putting coal into steam engines (GPs) and it is my job to pick which engine has the highest horsepower). The people I work with are hard-working, kind, thoughtful people, which is something I appreciate a lot after my banking days where that was not the case. Plus the mission of an endowment is pretty solid - I went to college on a full ride, and now get to work on creating more scholarship, professorships, and supporting the best tool for upward economic mobility in the country.   
    2. Worst part: Vibes based venture allocators. They make me lose braincells every time I have to engage with them.  
  4. Any skills that I should be prepare to touch up on in this role?
    1. Will circle back to this (have to stop typing for now)
  5. Also, looking 20 years in the future (because i’m interested in the career path), how does this space stack up? I was thinking it was favorable since some fund types might falter or become obsolete over the years, but investment funds will always need capital so…
    1. This really depends on what winning the game looks like for you. The way to win the game - if you are focused on wealth - is to survive to MD/partner. There is a mountain of ivy->top EB/BB-> BX/APO/CG/TPG-> H/S/W people that end up burning out and leaving finance before seeing the level of salary that drew them into that career path in the first place. The risk of burnout at an LP is low. LP roles are very stable, low stress, great WLB, intellectual interesting, have the ability to do a lot of travel. Plus, while the money is not GP-level, it will do the job. The tenured MDs at my firm make low single digits millions and this is the case for most of the other $10+ or $20+ billion endowment (and probably the same for Soros/Willett/HHMI/etc.). 

Another aside: What separates the CIOs / top MDs from the investment directors that bounce around shop to shop struggling to get promoted is their access. If you are a venture-focused MD that can get whatever LP you join into Sequoia, Index, Accel, Benchmark, Founders Fund (and Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross... oh wait, nevermind), the world is yours for the taking. Focus on developing real relationships with up and coming high potential mid career people at GPs in your early days as a junior allocator. My roledex is pretty small for my peer cohort (25ish people at GPs and a half a dozen staff at other endowments I can trade notes with), but a resource that massively has paid dividends - increased access, early notice of spin-outs, private details on why people left / who are the best partners at select firms. I even have my eye on one of them to seed if he ever spin-outs from his current firm. The ability to engage with world class investors (case in point, every quarter I speak with the founder of a GP worth mid-single digit billions on how he views the macro and the EM investing environment, where I get to learn a lot from a 30+ year veteran of the industry) and getting to fund the next generation of leading investment managers is such an incredible part of the job. 

How do you track talent flows as an LP? 

and what does that actually mean in practice? 

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Authored by: Certified Private Equity Professional - 1st Year AssociateCertified Private Equity Pro
 
Lima Papa - Certified Professional
Neanderthal PE
10mo
  • What does career progression look specifically in this role? How does this role stack up for MBA recruiting? If you get into this role and like it, this career is the exit. You can move around to different types of allocators (endowments, foundations, family offices, pensions, sovereign wealth funds, etc.). Many people come to this track but not a ton of people leave. You just get more senior in the role. Eventually as you progress towards a CIO seat where you have to think about managing your team and all your external stakeholders like your board or, if you're at an OCIO or other sort of for-profit, you get very involved in managing client relationships and developing new business. But that's a long time in the future for you. MBA recruiting can be good but you don't need an MBA to move up in this world. Many people who leave allocator roles for MBA are trying to transition to a different career path.
  • How is the client facing the exposure? This is what i’m the most excited about. I’m excited to have dinners and meetings with billionaire fund managers to pick their brain a bit. Is that a thing at the junior level in this career? Juniors tend to not have much external exposure at big places like the one you're describing. At a small endowment, you might be fresh out of college and have the opportunity to go to dinner with billionaire fund managers. At a large OCIO, you're probably spending most of your time at your desk. Maybe you get to attend some annual meetings that your boss doesn't want to go to.
  • If there is anyone else specifically in one of these roles, what are the best and worst parts of the job? WLB seems to be pretty good and i’ll be working 45–55 hours a week it seems outside of travel. WLB is amazing and you get paid decently. I think it's the one of the best jobs in finance as long as you're cool with never being part of the 0.1%. It's a career path that is interesting and you'll be comfortable. I'm not sure there is a "worst" part exactly but it can turn into a job really focused on client development at the senior level if you're at an OCIO and that takes you away from the actual investing work which is what I think is the fun part.
  • Any skills that I should be prepare to touch up on in this role? (1) Be a good writer. Learn how to think / write without using ChatGPT. (2) Presentation skills. (3) being a good hang in professional settings. This all becomes about relationships as you get more senior (you want GPs to like you and want you as one of their LPs) and networking becomes really important

Also, looking 20 years in the future (because i’m interested in the career path), how does this space stack up? I was thinking it was favorable since some fund types might falter or become obsolete over the years, but investment funds will always need capital so… Yes, but who knows how AI will disrupt this space. I like to think that AI can't go to conferences and do the social/relationship element of the job which hopefully creates some moat but it's really hard to know.

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Authored by: Certified Private Equity Professional - PrincipalCertified Private Equity Pro
 
Addinator - Certified Professional
Human AM
2mo

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