Hello from Philadelphia!
Hello everyone!
I am a recent college graduate from a non target school in Philadelphia. I am looking to get into Asset Management either in equities or fixed income. I have held a few internships in the operation / client services department but nothing investment specific. Looking forward to networking and learning more from everyone!
Saw that you were from Philly so I figured I'd pop in. I'm pretty new here as well but that caught my eye as I'm from the same area. Chances are I'm probably favorably biased towards your non-target school in the area.
welcome aboard, also may want to look in your nearby areas (DC & NYC), you're in an enviable position geographically because you're a drive & train ride away from 2 of the biggest metro areas in the country, you could make a day trip and get some informational interviews/coffees/lunches done, capitalize on this and don't pigeonhole yourself in Philly (nothing wrong with Philly, just sayin).
I grew up in the Philly area so it's always held a place for me. A few years ago I looked into all sorts of finance jobs located there and was surprised how many long only AM firms are located there (there's some PE and HF but not much). There's obviously the 800 lb gorilla Vanguard but there are a few other decent shops: Brandywine, Glenmede (a little different), Delaware Investments and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.
The good thing about looking in Philly is that you may be able to network your way into a decent local firm from Villanova, Temple or Drexel (I'm guessing you went to one of those?) because so many people stay local who grew up in and went to school in Philly. You compete with the Wharton guys but they tend to move onto NYC or elsewhere. Look into firms in the Philly area, check to see if there are any alumni connections through their website's executive bios and LinkedIn. Don't discount NYC and like @"thebrofessor" said, it's great because you're only slightly more than an hour train ride away from NYC to interview. There's somethings in DC, but not a ton.
Good luck.
Philly is a great city with a ton to offer, but finance here is a real interesting beast. I wouldn't necessarily recommend starting a career here. If you do want to work in Philly you need to dig deep and really search out firms. Tons of PE, VC, AM, IB, etc here, but it is is under the radar.
Since you are a new grad I just found a role that might be of interest. Basically credit analyst within Brown Brothers PB. Seems like a solid gig and with BBH moving offices to I think One Liberty they might be trying to grow.
BBH is moving from that old office on Walnut? That is a really cool old school place. I understand why they'd move simply because it couldn't have been the most efficient space but it looks like something out of the 1920's or before.
I'm curious as to your opinion on finance in Philly and why it's a different beast. I looked into some PE firms there a few years back because I was exploring moving back to where I grew up and have a lot of family but I just didn't find anything that fit. If I remember correctly, I probably found about 10 funds but not too many.
Also from philly, current student (non-target) wondering how to break into asset management firms around the area.
@"Dingdong08" I know, I love that building. The rents on Walnut have been going up so much I think BBH figured it just made sense to go into an office building and allow their historic building to be converted to high end retail or something. Kind of a shame, but we will see. Right across from there they demo'd that one story, block length building and are going to put up a 3 story glass box. The whole city is building up so much.
As for my comment about Philly finance. What I have found is that there are a ton of shops, but you need to really dig deep to find them. Once you do it is really unorthodox when it comes to finding a job. You don't have the major banks with their structured recruiting and then HH's placing those analysts into PE when the time comes. In Philly you can really go into PE at a small shop based on an internship or impressing a partner. Real relationship based.
You're right about the 10 or so PE shops. I suppose it depends on the size you are looking for and what type of PE. Philly is littered with smaller shops as I think the city draws on the lifestyle crowd. That being said, the city as a whole is on a big upswing cycle which might bring more financial players into the city. Honestly, being so close to NYC you would think that there would be more funds. Only time will tell I suppose.
I love Philly. It always gets shit on because it's in NYC's shadow but it really should be a secret weapon for finance. It's probably a quarter of the cost to operate compared to NYC and it's only a 1+ hour train ride to Penn Station. And it's a manageable city with that feel between Boston (small) and NYC (huge). The Main Line offers beautiful suburbs at half the price of the NY 'burbs, not a bad commute to CC, and it has great public schools. The Killadelphia thing gets way overplayed: as long as you don't head up north or west and stay in Center City or near Penn it's completely safe.
There are more trading desks in Philly than you'd suspect.
Welcome!
@"Dingdong08" 100%. 5 years from now and the city will be completely different. Center City at least. Yeah, you go to Olney or West Philly and you need an Apache Gunship to police the place, but you stay within CC and the place is fine. All the shitty areas are being cleaned up and the gentrification machine is expanding the nice parts of the city.
Finance wise the city does get hurt because of the overlap. You can cover Philly from NYC so a lot of offices are simply 5-8 man shops. Makes having a start to finish career here difficult. You'd think the cost of NYC would drive more firms to Philly to operate, but I guess the draw to being in New York is just too much. If we could ever get high speed rail in the only corridor that actually makes money for Amtrak then Philly would be a huge player. Effectively a suburb of NYC.
I'm definitely long regarding the prospects of the city, but can't see a full career here. Hopefully one day it can grow to the point of Chicago/Boston with regards to its own finance community.
@"TNA", I agree now that you said it. Most of the guys I spoke with in PE started in NYC or maybe Boston but I can't think of many (or any) who started here right after college and stayed. It seemed to be people who grew up here or went to Wharton and wanted to come back to a less intense place than NYC. The OP was asking about plain Jane Asset Management and I have no idea about that other than when I was searching around I was surprised how many more there were than I had thought.
I often can't believe how much Philly's changed since I graduated high school in the early 90's. Back then it was strictly CC, south of Vine and north of South and Old City was still pretty dumpy. The first time someone said let's go to Northern Liberties a few years ago and they told me where it was I looked at them with a stupor like "you want to head where? Deathwish?" That used to just be North Philly. Even Queens Village was rough back then. We went to South St in high school and you didn't go one block south. It's really amazing. I've been to a ton of cities around the US and I really haven't heard of one that's changed for the better as much as Philly has.
I agree on a high speed line but in reality people who live in Fairfield County or Morristown NJ spend almost as much time on a crappy commuter train as one would from 30th St. I know a few people who do the Philly->NYC commute. I think the train stops in Wayne and Ardmore so you can basically go direct from home to Penn in a relatively decent amount of time. But a real high speed rail would really make it doable and a something you could do for the long term. Most of the guys I know who have done the commute last 18-24 months and either move to North Jersey or get a new job.
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