Research Associate at Large LO AM (Capital Group, Fidelity) or Growth Focused LO AM (Sands Capital, Polen Capital)
Applying for roles: Research Associate at a large LO AM in NYC and a smaller growth-focused LO AM non-NYC. For larger firm, the sector coverage is Banks, Financials, REITs, etc. vs. Smaller growth-focused firm is Technology/Healthcare. What's the better option?
Also any thoughts on work-life balance at the larger firms as a research associate?
I would choose the bigger firm at this stage in your career. Having the blue chip brand on your resume opens up doors. And being in NYC in your early 20s is second to none.
Are you focused on firm or location? If you want the top growth LO AMers and a huge career booster, look at Wellington, Fidelity (both Boston) and Capital Group (LA).
Would love to hear some comments on comp and career progression for Polen and Sands. Are these really the holy grail seats at the analyst level like a seat at Capital Group/Fidelity/TRowe are?
Have heard progression is bad at both but also that analyst is still a "holy grail" seat on $/hour, albeit with lower terminal comp vs the big boys.
Do you have any more insights about how bad progression is
If an analyst seat is the end goal, I'd also consider Associate -> Analyst conversion rate as well. My shop (>$500bn AUM) is around 10% for the past 10 years - and probably around 5% for the past 5 years.
From what I hear institutional clients put more emphasis on Analysts with MBAs in recent years making it tougher to convert from the associate seat (despite the fact that most associates are lightyears ahead in competency over MBA hires that don't have prior research experience).
Depends on experience level. I would be happy breaking into any of those firms as a first job
Would you take all of these firms over BB IB if HF is the end goal?
There isn’t a lot of mobility between AM and HF. Sure it happens but both sides look at each other with a little disgust. HFs are seen as traders that don’t understand businesses and LO guys are seen as sleepy. Do IB if you wanna do HF and do AM if you wanna do AM
Normally I'd pick the large LO. But financials is not a great coverage, in this case you might be better off covering normal companies at a smaller firm. it's tough to say and comes down to personal preference.
Take it if it's Fido and you like Boston. Good conversion rate from associate to analyst when I was there (left a couple yrs ago). I don't know enough about Cap Group to opine.
The location also matters as well. I'm not sure where you'd be working at Polen but Boca/Waltham are not the best places to be living post-grad (Boston better of course). DC (Sands Capital) is also not the best place to start a finance career.
Incoming associate at Fido, from your experience approximately how high is the conversion rate? I haven't been given transparent figures but was just curious- thanks!
I left ~3yrs ago so things may have changed but I think the promotion rate could be as high as 50% (with some ppl self-selecting out) in good years. This is for equities. HY and Fixed Income I don't know, although I think FI has been making more efforts to keep people around in recent years
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