Fidelity Equity research Vs investment solutions group

How do these two differ? I'm only asking as the is the first time i've seen the job title "Investment solutions group".

I know equity research is seen as front office, but would i be correct in saying ISG is front office too?
How do the exit opps differ?

As far as i know, equity research is advising the firm of whether to buy/sell certain companies through the research you have done.
Where does ISG fit in at grad level? It states putting together investment portfolios but clearly a grad student wouldn't do that. So would it kind of be using the ER departments research in order to do further research to show the fund manager how to invest a client's money?

7 Comments
 

Don't know anything about ISG but equity research is very much front office. At a place like Fido, you will have a level of corp access superior to that of almost any place in the industry. You will meet and possibly develop relationships with CEOs of every company in your industry group. Not to mention you will have sell side brokers fellating you constantly.

 
Dank Nugs At a place like Fido, you will have a level of corp access superior to that of almost any place in the industry. You will meet and possibly develop relationships with CEOs of every company in your industry group. Not to mention you will have sell side brokers fellating you constantly

How would you rate this opportunity in comparison with a IBD summer internship at one of the major banks?

 
Best Response

Ok. So given the description here, this sounds like a portfolio construction group. You're optimizing sharpe ratios, doing scenario analysis, out of sample tests, etc, trying to use statistical tools and factor models come up with the ideal portfolio. Your life may become the BARRA risk model. These are the portfolio and cross-product analytics quants, and you see them at places like MSCI, Barclays POINT, maybe some of Bloomberg's portfolio tools, and at a lot of hedge funds. Linear/convex optimization, stats, and programming are all necessary skills here.

This is a front office group. This job offers the best lifestyle of all of the front office roles- but it also probably has the most mediocre pay. If you are OK with earning $100K/year, there are worse places to work.

 
IlliniProgrammerIf you are OK with earning $100K/year, there are worse places to work.
This is a hell of a sentence.
 
Stryfe IlliniProgrammer:

If you are OK with earning $100K/year, there are worse places to work.

This is a hell of a sentence.

It's a hell of a sentence for someone who expects to graduate earning $60K, and it's a hell of a sentence for an experienced banker earning $1M.

I'm neither of those. I'm a Strategist (a weird hybrid of programmer, statistician, and quant). I make good money; I am grateful for every dollar I earn, but I do not make amazing money. Most people who could get hired into portfolio construction groups could earn $80K (maybe more) at a tech firm doing a tad less, and most entry level hires who'd consider $100K at a portfolio construction group couldn't earn $200K elsewhere having their lives completely run by their jobs.

My view is that $100K/year is good money for most top 5% college graduates.

My view is that $100K/year in Boston is better money than $100K/year in NYC.

My view is that $100K for 45 hours/week in Boston is even better.

My view is that both jobs are worth giving serious consideration to. OP will have a moderately better career working 65 hours/week in equity research at Fido, but the decision has a lot of nuance to it. How much do you value your twenties, and how much do you value your career? My wisdom as a 28 year old having worked with people from both teams can't make this decision for you, other than to say it has a lot of nuance to it. If you want to work hard, and you want to have a great career, choose ER. If you value having a life, having a girlfriend, having friends, choose IS.

 

Modi accusantium dolores ut qui facilis. Repellat porro eum pariatur qui numquam aliquid dolor. Consequatur ut ut atque id.

Dolores rerum quod quo neque sed a. Eligendi repellat soluta doloribus sed fugit quis. Magni sequi et voluptates explicabo tempora ullam. Tenetur nam aut maiores non ut et.

Aliquid exercitationem natus voluptatem sint praesentium fugiat molestiae. Rem voluptatibus doloribus adipisci sit commodi explicabo reprehenderit. Voluptas ab aut sequi aperiam aut.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (48) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (83) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”