MM HF IR analyst looking to lateral to MF PE IR, need career advice
Hi all, I am a recent grad of a semi-target doing a first year investor relations stint at an MM LO HF in NYC aiming to lateral to an MF PE shop on their IR/BD division - also in NYC - as soon as I can after my 1-2 year mark, and am hoping to find someone on this site who will be open to giving me some career advice on this move. I already know that I want to do IR for the rest of my career so this progression will be a natural one for me. To provide some brief context about my background and work experience, I did a history major in college, graduated magna cum laude, and did several undergrad internships in media, business development, advertising/marketing, and public relations. I am an Asian male international from South Korea where we're required to serve the military for about two years, so I also have that military experience under my belt. I have additionally been admitted to a non-HS m7 MBA program (Sloan/Kellogg) and may/may not choose to matriculate depending on where I end up, and several other factors (opportunity cost of leaving workforce, whether firm will sponsor, whether there is a legitimate need to, etc). As for why I am currently doing HF IR instead of PE IR, it was because I couldn't manage to secure a good role in the latter out of undergrad. If anyone will be open to hopping on a call to offer me any advice, I'd really appreciate it if you could leave me a note on this thread or drop me a dm. I'd be more than happy to offer a monetary token of appreciation (or an actual quoted amount) for your time, thank you.
I just started at my firm about a month ago and have been making serious plans and doing extensive networking the past few weeks to prepare myself for this move in a year or two. I am fully committed to pouring all of my time and resources in to making sure that this transition turns out to be as smooth as possible, such that my success in making this move will be close to guaranteed. I am going all out on recruiting this time and am not looking to compromise anything on my next role and where I will end up, and would say that my biggest focus points would be firm reputation (BX/KKR/Apollo), upward mobility (clear path to MD/partner), and long-term compensation package with possible share of carry. My goal eventually is to take advantage of the higher upward mobility in IR/BD and work my way up to a senior-level position at one of those firms.
Couple things
- if you just hit the desk 1 month ago, stop networking. That is way too soon. Totally get you want to lateral, but networking at 1 month is ridiculous in the corporate land. 1 year is very short to lateral unless it's from IB, 2 years is more likely. IR jobs don't post that often and people will stay in that seat for years, so you should be starting to look around ~16-18 months in and then network with people as you see postings.
- sponsorship is going to make it tough, as the vast majority of people up for these positions don't need sponsorship
I also think MM HF to top 3 MF is going to be tough, you might need to stop at MM PE first. MF PE is a really competitive seat for obvious reasons - those are the best funds, IR is a pretty great job when the firm sells itself, and lots of internal applicants for those jobs. Also, FWIW, head of IR is a good seat, but you aren't going to become C-suite at a MF from that.
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