Financial Adviser to Boutique IB

Being a Financial Adviser is not an attractive job by anyone's imagination at least on WSO. However, I want to break into IB, specifically through a Boutique. I hear their recruiting is off cycle and I am going to be a December graduate from a spectacular non-target school in the NYC Metro Area.

It is my understanding that it take months of study to pass the series 7, 63, 79 etc... I notice in Financial Adviser training these licenses are sponsored. So If I cannot get a IB job, would it not make sense to go the Financial Adviser route at-least for the training? And then I can be a more attractive candidate for Boutique Banks. Or is there another route I should consider, such as consulting, in my path to break into IB?

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Having worked in PWM and pursued making a similar transition I can assure you this is not the best path, and likely one of the paths of highest resistance. There is virtually no overlap in the nature of the work that you do, other than maybe positioning certain products to HNW clients, and even that is a stretch as the boutique IB model is business advisory and wealth management is for the most part personal financial advisory. With respect to your question regarding Series 7 et al, as far as I'm aware, no hiring manager is going to care that you have them. If you're at a true boutique, chances are you're probably not even going to need your licenses for a year or two anyway, and the licenses are really not that hard or time consuming to acquire. If you're basically just looking for backup plans to boutique IB, I would spend my time primarily making sure you're prepped for those interviews, but also drop applications and network for any form of FP&A job with a reputable firm where you can grow some deeper industry experience within a particular vertical and then market yourself to an IB in that coverage area. I did that whole song and dance within the past few years so I'd love to save you some time spinning your wheels. Good luck with recruiting.

 

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