Reneging IB SA for AM SA
I want to get peoples’ opinion on this. I accepted an offer from a mid tier BB for summer analyst IB position, but have been nervous about the crazy hours and misery that seems to come with the job. I’m in the pipeline right now for AM at a top BB for SA role, am I crazy for thinking about reneging the IB for AM?
The reason I’m considering it is because I’ve known AM to be much better hours than IB at analyst level, while it’s still great pay. Also, WLB is incredibly important to me, so I’d be probably be looking to exit to AM/HF after 2 yrs in IB.
Would love some feedback
to clarify, is this an SA role at a LO AM shop or at an AM branch of a BB bank?
AM branch of BB
Can you explain the distinction?
the goal is fundamental research at an independent AM shop, AM branches of banks aren't really the place to be
Personally, I would take the IB SA. Sounds like your only reservation with banking is the hours, so you should just tough it out for 10 weeks just to get the experience on your resume. Come FT recruiting, I'm sure the transition from IB SA -> AM FT will be a lot easier than AM SA -> IB FT. Basically, 10 weeks of misery is a pretty small price to pay for vastly more options in FT recruiting.
I hear that, but if come FT recruitment season I’d most likely be looking to AM, why wouldn’t it make more sense to just start in AM as an SA? I get that I have more options with IB on my resume, but does that beat the hassle of having to network/interview all over again?
I mean that all depends on how sure you are that AM is what you want to go into. If you 100% set on AM, then by all means go for it.
What kind of asset management? Direct investing into equities? Private equity? Asset allocation? Pwm?
If it’s a direct investing role then yes. Otherwise, go IB.
It would be the Asset Management division of a BB IB, and it would be a generalist spot with later placement into a rotation of a few different groups (I think I'd get some say in the groups). I'm not sure the specifics of the investment strategy, would you know more about that based on what I've said?
Do you know what groups they have available for interns to rotate in? Saying this bc AM could mean a lot of things at a BB. BB AM divisions offer products across fixed income, alternatives (PE, private credit, real estate), public equities, ETFs, mutual funds etc. Even if you get placed in alternatives, the role might only entail fund allocations (investing into a private equity GP's fund rather than investing in individual companies themselves)
I interned in an allocator role (not at a large bank but at an actual institutional LP) and now re-recruiting for IB. Happy to talk more over pm if you wish
The advice you was getting earlier wasn’t great as IBSA->AMFT very rarely happens simply because #1 there are such few seats in AM to begin with and a lot of the time we laugh at people doing IB working like 50%+ the hours we do for pretty much 10% more pay so you don’t tend to see many IB’ers at LO AM shops. Also in regard to difference between IB AM and Independent AM, I think there’s a huge difference. Personally for me would never want to do AM at a BB. Yes the pay may be better to begin with but from what I see, the entry level roles seem to only be Salesy or in Alternatives, which if that interest you then fair enough but there just doesn’t seem to be any entry level Research or Portfolio Management roles like you can get at the independent houses. Also when I try to talk to my friends that ended up at IB AM, they just don’t seem to be as knowledgeable as the ones at independent AM’s and that wasn’t the case going into their roles. Often times feel like AM arms of banks are ostracised and not in the same category as the main core functions for an Investment Bank which is Advisory.
Thank you! Where can I find out more about what I’d be doing in entry level role at IB AM? It seemed from the interview that the role would be much more analytical and investing-focused
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