Transition from Investment Consulting

My buddy did it and it worked out very well. I think the catalyst was family connections though...

Talk to the managers, develop a relationship, etc. Use the fact that you have contact with these people to facilitate your transition

hey westcoastmonkey. if you dont mind me asking, why are you looking to get out of investment consulting?

i am the opposite - i work for a large money manager but was considering investment consulting in my future. can you shed some light on why you want to transfer out? do you work for a large consulting firm? Mercer? Hewitt? something along those?

i'm interested in knowing as well. i currently have offers for Manager Research and another in Investment Strategy Research for different ICs (mercer/hewitt/cambridge/TW). i understand Manager Research means a lot of contact with buy side, but what about "strategy research"? would the latter role lead well into buyside PM track or a strategist role at a bank?

Investment consulting can get you into a client-facing or product management role at an asset manager at best. PM track? Strategy at ibank? These would be very long shots and require a totally different skillset.

Keep in mind also that for an asset manager recruiting an employee from a well connected investment consulting firm is a politically dangerous move and is quite often not worth it, even if the move is triggered by the consultant and not the asset manager. The more senior the consultant, the more this is true.

WestCoastMonkey - I looked back at my post history and noticed that I replied to a post a few months back about an interview you had, presumably for your current job. Congratulations, but maybe you should test the waters for a few more months?

WestCoastMonkey: from bottom-up, it goes from intelligence gathering about competitors and market trends, up to product design and positioning relative to the competition. Product managers deal with the (quite difficult) task of finding how a firm's management skills can be packaged into products that will answer a growing demand from the market. From one side they are pressured by relationship managers to think of products that would fulfill specific needs, while from the other side they are pressured by portfolio managers to think of products which better fit their skills or give them enough flexibility to make full use of their skills. They must match both sides while keeping the long-term perspective of how the firm's product line should be positionned in the competitive landscape. From my perspective, this is probably where an ex-investment consultant would best fit...

Tan86: whenever you hire good employees from business partners, it can be perceived as if you were stealing them regardless of who initiated the contact, and even if you are not a competitor. Asset managers are known for having the big bucks, compared to investment consultants, and therefore they can pick employees from investment consultants whenever they want. The only thing that prevents them from doing that is to maintain good business relations. You'll observe the same thing between the sell-side and the buy-side. If a PM makes a move to a trading or strategy team at a brokerage with which they were doing business tightly, relations can suffer. Interestingly, the opposite is usually beneficial from the supplier's perspective. A move from the sell-side to the buy-side, or a move from an asset manager to a consultant or institutional investor, is usually a good thing for the ex-employer.