GS Private Wealth Management post MBA
I am a recent M7 MBA graduate who accepted an offer to be a Private Wealth Advisor (Starting as a PWM Associate) at Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management (GS PWM). I worked in finance before business school and went to MBA to stay in finance to multiply my earning potential. I was attracted to GS in business school mostly because of the brand power and have found myself entirely unimpressed with PWM. It is clear to me that it's not difficult, particularly at GS, to make a few million dollars a year after a decade, but I find myself asking at what cost. If you succeed as a private wealth advisor, life can be very good. Hours are relatively light, you are responsible to no one but your clients for the most part. But if you are passionate about finance or someone who prefers more mental engagement, it's an incredibly boring job. You spend your days chasing ultra wealthy people down, whether its cold calling or endless "warm" leads. You think about how wealthy everyone around you is at all times and ponder whether you should pursue them as a client or someone who can bring you clients. In order to be one of those people making a few million a decade into their PWM career, you are undeniably spending years using the same sales tactics as the guys at Northwestern Mutual with a more sophisticated offering and wealthier prospects. Once you have clients, little financial knowledge is needed. You pick baskets of strategies and managers and help put client money into SMAs and mutual funds that GS research teams have done great DD on and then explain to clients what's happening in their portfolio. It's simple. It's monotonous. It's laborious.
That leads me to the point of this post. While I set out to get my MBA to be in a high earning potential finance role, this one is incredible boring. As someone with a genuine interest and passion in finance, I feel like the wall street version of a door to door salesman. I will probably leave after I've put in a year or two and am interested in the WSO community perspective on what I should consider. Others in my position have left to other PB roles to do the same job (kill me), or taken corporate finance/business development roles in start ups or tech companies. I'm not particularly interested in staying in the wealth management space.
So I ask, do you think I should just sit and wait until the job gets more fun (or the money does)? Do I leave ASAP or should I put in a couple years to get GS on the resume as planned? Should I do BD at a start up or CF at a tech company? Are there things I should be considering that I'm not? Do you hate PWM and financial advisors and are you about to shit post about that?
Thanks for engaging.
I'm sorry you aren't enjoying it. I joined J.P. Morgan Private Bank last summer after an MBA as well. We have a few Goldman refugees in our office, it's interesting to hear their stories. I don't find my job here boring. I am enjoying the business development part of the role. Most of my time is spent developing relationships internally and externally. I genuinely enjoy doing that. We have also hosted a number of interesting client and prospect events. I have great work life balance while many of my classmates are getting crushed.
I think ultimately most big jobs post MBA have a desired end state where you're ultimately responsible for producing and bringing in revenue (Consulting Partner, IB MD, etc.). In this role you're a producer earlier, and you can get compensated as such. I think only you can answer your question. What matters to you? Do you *need* to be fulfilled in your job? Do you think you'd actually be fulfilled in most other post MBA roles? Are you working in order to make as much money as possible and have time to enjoy it? What are some of your personal goals in the next 3-5 years? 10 years? The grass isn't always greener. Happy to go deeper on this through another channel as someone in a similar (our upside isn't as high given the way we are compensated, but the comp model has its benefits for junior advisors) position.
Didn’t end up recruiting post mba but know a ton of people in the pwm space.
In jp pb clients are brought to you whereas in gs pwm, you have to bring your own clients. There’s higher upside in gs pwm (the gs pwm partners make considerably more than the mbb partners in a non NYC US city I live in), so it’s a decent gig if you’re good in sales. JP PB advisors are paid on base + tiered bonus, whereas gs pwm advisors are paid on commission.
I’ve heard some of the gs pwm partners make more than some of the ibd partners also.
if you have a good sales personality and a strong network, it’s a great gig. Risk adjusted though, you may be better off in ibd/consulting. Yes you can make millions, but the notion that “it’s not difficult make millions after some time in gs” is wrong. You’ll have to grind for it and its difficult to bring in clients.