RFP writer role, yayy or nay?
I’m a finance masters grad with an offer for a RFP proposal Writer role in AM. I’d like to know what the career path or exit options are to switch. Firm is great and have said internal mobility is promoted.
Preface: I’m making a career switch from Engineering with okayish roles and am looking to do project finance or financial analysis as a career. This role won’t have data interaction.
This role is only using my prior biz dev skills and am not sure if investing 2 -3 years before requesting to switch out is appealing as I’d be starting at an entry level in a proper modeling role.
Any thoughts appreciated! I’ve been on the market for 7 months so big conflicted to do something that I’m not keen on.
I am curious what financial analysis means, I'm assuming an investment research type role (i.e. credit, equity, macroeconomic, quant, etc.). To be clear up front - your most likely options are to go more client facing/business development, marketing, communications, maybe a thought leadership writer or someone who specializes in content creation. Proposal management. Things like that are common. It's very uncommon to start on this side of the house, and often it's not even part of the house half the time as most RFP teams are setup as part of admin functions that then support a variety of products/services/business units within AM firms - so that adds to the challenge.
The most optimistic version of this I feel ok about laying out is that you spend a year or three, absolutely kill it, learn everything there is about a product/service and become so fluent in it that you are able to step in for subject matter experts routinely. You'd build relationships, network, trust, and if you were able to swing it potentially go for a role that was more product strategy/specialist - those in between roles where you'd sit between RM's and investment teams, communicating decisions, and effectively client facing - you could make that role 'heavier' to writing thought leadership or something like that. You'd get your CFA - and frankly, I see so many postings for RFP writers having their CFA's - it's actually not as crazy a switch as it might seem depending on the firm. Still unlikely and very, very challenging however.
If you were extremely lucky, and were able to build strong relationships, and your firm was truly to be believed in mobility, and you have the upside to learn, and you built a ton of skills on the side investment related - you could have a better shot than most as an internal candidate to go for a junior level investment role or something similar within.
Tbh, I’m simply in the dilemma of taking a job to stop the gap on my resume vs trying to get an analyst role in corporate finance. Your logic def makes sense, but im wondering why can’t I get entry level analyst roles (have been working with the career services team of my semi target college)
I work at a big AM and believe me when I tell you to avoid it like the plague. You basically just copy and paste pre canned responses into emails and fill out forms all day. The whole job is going to be replaced AI in a few years anyways. It’s very back office and given your background you would be bored out of your mind.
Also whether or not you can use it to move to a different role depends on the firm. Some are very good and like to promote from within and some just stick you in the back office for life.
Right, given the chance to do financial analyst level role at some point in the future vs pursuing wanting to do it now is where I’m at. Just in unemployment phase trying to hunt for corporate finance entry level roles is what is getting to me
I'm going to disagree, (not about the job--it's an absolute mindless nightmare) but RFP writer has one big advantage over a lot of mid/back office roles: you end up in front of a lot of people way above your pay-grade. I know a couple people who got hired out internally to help support product.
Do not go into any RFP team. What the previous poster said is 100% true. If they promise you some kind of client interaction/possibility to move into sales, it’s generally a lie…
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