IR Roles Becoming “Trendy” on Social Media
There seems to be an increased interest over the last year in Investor Relation roles amongst young women outside of finance. A lot of this seems to be driven by Instagram and TikTok accounts portraying IR as a glamorous career filled with travel, designer outfits, and opportunities to mingle with wealthy people / climb the social ladder if your modelling career didn't make it.
Please be advised that this is far from the truth. This isn’t a marketing or influencer job - it requires a solid grasp of financial concepts, private markets, your firm’s products, and the patience to deal with demanding LPs and internal stakeholders (think less cocktail nights and more internal slide decks). The skill set is much closer to that of a buy-side analyst than it is to lifestyle content creation.
Curious if others are seeing this as well, or is it just me? What do existing IR folks think of this trend? Good to have more talent (I'm sure some of them can do a great job) or are you concerned seeing the false marketing / anyone with 5k followers and a make-up kit thinking they can do your job?
It's always funny seeing younger people realize long-standing realities and act like they're the first to discover it.
You can teach someone financial concepts. It isn't rocket science. Can't teach them to be hot though.
Aren’t u like 40
Getting there. What’s your point, kid?
Yea we have like 1-2 fake IR girls that are just hot and then get fired past associate and the rest are real IR with an actual future at the firm. Good gig for a few years
IR is very much a marketing job and (IME) teaching hot girls what EPS is is a lot easier than teaching some hardo finance dork how to shut the fuck up and not violate reg FD
Also a lot of girls already know what EPS is so you don't even have to teach the astronauts how to drill - total W
IR people are treated with more respect at my firm than the back office folks. They have a chance to make partner and aren't treated like a cost center. On the other hand, they don't work investment banking hours and while a lot of them do come from places like banking, there is more openness to alternative paths.
I don't work with investor relations but I do sit near them, so take it as a grain of salt! And I'm referring to IR at a fund, not a corporation
Are you at an MF, UMM or MM?
So, it's just like every other wish fulfillment vs reality wakeup call on Wall Street?
No one wants to be an analyst because they simply looooooove financial models. They think that investment banking is bottle service and strippers and being a Master of the Universe. This feels like the same exact ploy, for a different role - emphasize the 1% of the time the job is sexy and fun, and ignore the 99% reality of drudgery and work.
Frankly, all of that is basically a description of social media in general. What are you so surprised about?
If we’re talking about a small shop where a vibes hire can scaffold relationships with junior staff of the large asset owners and no one is scrutinizing personal expenses of an analyst..then sure, memorize a strategy deck, maybe a deal or two, and a couple of concepts you could pick up on tik-tok while posting about a DIML. Are they at a large firm where they’re responsible across multiple strategies and dealing with the headaches of servicing existing business, placating numerous internal teams, including insulating the obviously more important investors from BS (who are also inclined to think you’re a loud idiot) while also beholden to a fundraising target? More hostile vibes at the junior levels of IR, capital formation, whatever the industry wants to call “sales” at big Asset managers. At least that’s my take.
its actually not surprising if you think about it. Think about the advent of influencers etc, combine that with loneliness epidemic and the general jobscope (lack of hard skills, soft skills focused) of IR and it makes a lot of sense why people looking to make it in finance would want to try this role
Are people talking about solely buyside IR or corporate IR too?
Gotta be buyside IR, those roles are cushy but boring as shit. Corporate is more intense.
Which do you think is a better career?
This must not be in reference to corporate IR, ha. I just finished up a 3.5 yr stint at a large US public company. Definitely not a glam gig. When what seems like a neverending conference season finally winds down, it's quiet period and time for 6 weeks of quarterly earnings prep. Then the day after earnings, conference season begins again. Made a move to try Corp Dev, but would still definitely do IR again. More predictable schedule.
How has the schedule / workload been in Corp Dev vs IR?
DM’d you if you get a chance!
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