Career Decision for Back/Mid Office IR Analyst
Ignore title - I am a currently a second year IR analyst at a MM shop making pretty decent comp (think ~$160-170k all in) and gradudated undergrad within the last few years. I also should have a good chunk of change in stock options fully vesting over the next four years.
I have been in touch with a MM Bank (think Piper/HL/Stifel/Raymond James) over the last few months about a role in their Turnaround and Restructuring group. I believe this role would fit within the company's consulting branch rather than within the IBD arm. I am interested long term in moving into more of an investing role as I feel this current IR role is a bit repetitive and does not involve a lot of analytical thinking or quantitative skills. I believe I would be taking a minor paycut to go to this Rx role (expecting ~$150k all in) and would be passing up on all my stock options (which could appreciate up to $180k+ by the time it is fully vested, with the option of additional shares each year). My questions are below:
- Would a role like this open up exit opps for me within actual IB divisions at EB or BB? Put differently, if I spent 2 years within the Rx consulting group at this bank, would this open the door to me for interviews for Rx roles at better shops like Guggenheim, Moelis, Lazard, or larger banks?
- Is this probably the best option I will have to exit the Middle office IR roles and move back towards real finance roles? I came from a Big 4 accounting firm prior to the IR role and I am from a super non-target so I am not sure what my total upside would be getting to a BB or ultimately ever making it over to the buyside?
- I currently have a very good situation within my current role. Work ~40 hours each week (with exception of days leading up to big pitches or important meetings) and have extremely generous benefits outside of just outstanding comp (meals, ubers, PTO, large team support (10+ IR analysts helping on all requests, etc.) If this role does not provide me with great exit opps, would it be smarter to just stay where I am for the longer term? Leaders within the IR group at my firm are clearing $500k in their 30s and also have great WLB. Feel as though the upward mobility is there even though the work may not be as analytic as I was hoping.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here are some insights and advice for your situation:
Exit Opportunities from Rx Consulting to IB
Best Option to Exit Middle Office IR Roles
Current Role vs. New Opportunity
Summary
Ultimately, the decision depends on your long-term career goals and what you value more: immediate analytical challenges and potential exit opportunities or maintaining a strong work-life balance with significant financial benefits.
Sources: Breakdown of Post-IB Exit Opportunities, Rx Analysts (Current / Former) How Did You Think About Exits?, Why Would Anyone Go Into Consulting?, Choosing RX over M&A -- anyone recommend this?, Exit opps: I've crunched the previous work experience of 390 PE Associates..
bump - any advice at all would be helfpul
If you want to go into investing then I think you should take it, but go in eyes wide open you will not only be taking a pay cut but your work life balance will be significantly worse. Furthermore, recruiting for buyside opportunities will be difficult (as it is for everyone) and the jobs themselves will be difficult especially since you’ll enter the buyside at the associate level. So if you do this perfectly, you’re looking at a very rough 3-4 years minimum.
Questions I would be asking - how old are you? What other things do you have going on in life? Are you willing to risk losing romantic and personal relationships to do this job? How important is working in investing to you? I genuinely believe the people who do the best in PE / IB are the ones who you can’t scare off from doing the job and are more than willing to burn down their lives to do it because it’s important to them.
Being honest with yourself about what you’re solving for and why is key here. Is it money, prestige, validation, intellectual fulfillment?
Thanks so much for your response - I am 24 years old and into investing (as much as one normally is, I don't dream about LBOs and LTV ratios). I am really just curious if there is higher upside to this role longer term and if the hours will really be as terrible as people say considering this is not a BB bank and I will technically be in their consulting arm and not in the banking division of this firm?
Would love to PM you if you could chat there but either way appreciate all the help!
Happy to answer your questions here if you want to post them.
Regarding Rx consulting vs. Banking - I have a friend who did Rx consulting and it seemed like his lifestyle was pretty much the same as any other banker (maybe incrementally better). In any event, if you're dead set on PE and you make it over to that world, I can guarantee you that your life will be very stressful and hours will be very long. I would do some diligence about how likely it is for you to actually make the jump from that middle market Rx consulting role into a buyside role and what type of buyside roles specifically you'd get looks for (I would imagine distressed or credit is probably the most likely exit - make sure that is appealing to you).
Based on what you've said, the best reason to take this job would be if you think it will be additive to your professional skillset. The incremental money isn't really going to move the needle since you already likely earn enough to comfortably spend and save and IR pays pretty well. It sounds like investing is interesting to you but not a passion, so there's a fair shot that (like 60% of people who go into PE) you will likely leave after your associate stint there. So you need to ask yourself, what skills and capabilities will you gain over this 4 year career journey that you couldn't otherwise gain via your current path? The other thing to ask yourself, is what in your personal life are you willing to sacrifice to get those skills?
There is nothing wrong with challenging yourself and taking a risk, but just make sure you're going into it eyes wide open and not chasing a fantasy of what "high finance" is supposed to be. These careers are far more mundane and personally destructive than they're commonly assumed to be. But they're also excellent places to learn (how much more than IR, I'm not sure). It's up to you to weigh those things against each other
In my personal opinion unless you hate IR I would stay. Are you Fundraising or supporting the Biz Dev/Fundraising team? Know multiple MF IR VPs getting paid 600k+ plus.(I know the excel monkeys will disagree but the pay will only go up when they start selling Credit ETFs to Financial Advisors)
The highest paid IR VP I know left PIMCO to go sell for a MF on their Private Wealth Team.
Also you have exits to Fintech Sales or GTM if you want that ( The places that would reach out to you are lucrative)
All in all I would stay and if you move…..go to the fundraising side.
I'll literally trade places with you right now for IR
Grass is always greener - agree with what's been said above. I think most BB analysts would switch to your job in a heartbeat.
$160-170 for a 40 hour workweek and great culture is amazing, that is not the case everywhere so I would be careful giving that up. If you really want out, I would move to a fundraising/front-office focused IR role rather than
Analytical work is all fine and well, but once you are ~VP in almost any role you are expected to get out of the model and do higher-level work, so over the long-term I wouldn't get too worked up about this / the FOMO of having less technical skills than an IB analyst if you like your job.
Thanks for the response! I totally agree and am very happy with where I am at from a comp-to-WLB perspective. I just wonder if I am pigeonhole'ing myself into an IR background and will limit my long term exit ops.
Are you in a VHCOL city?
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