How competitive is it to get asset management out of undergrad?
In comparison to Banking, S&T, and ER? How much does going to a target school matter? I feel like I’d be a lot more happy in asset management than banking and will be willing to take the pay cut.
Did you get a return offer from your AM internship?
Otherwise I suggest a combination of shrooms and everclear. It's basically not possible.
There are less seats but also less interest. I went to a target and got a couple of LO equity offers coming out of undergrad without previous internships in buy or sell side ER. I would say it's difficult (as is recruiting for anything worth getting) but definitely not impossible.
There are essentially NO entry level seats unless somebody makes one for you at major shops. One of our last three interns was a F-in Wharton MBA student who'd managed a $100M sleeve of a hedge fund in Korea.
If you get an offer, you're likely to be on the internal sales desk, which is miserable.
Actually getting in is pretty sweet. I know a guy who took a paycut from the sales desk for an internal transfer to our team. He said that there was no way in hell that he'd go back.
If you get high enough though, hours can go back up. It's very tough to feel sorry for somebody making seven+ figures though.
What team are you on? I'm just talking about buy side equity research here, which I know for a fact Fidelity, T Rowe, Wells Cap, Harris, Dodge & Cox (just to name a few) recruit for out of undergrad. In fact I believe all of the above have structured recruiting programs where they take kids every year, not on a need basis like other funds.
You know I can't say. AUM beats all those, and I support a single fund bigger than a few of them.
No it doesn't lol. Going by AUM you would rather work for Vanguard than every other firm? And Baupost and Baron Capital are just bottom of the barrel? Do you really work in this industry? I assume when you say "support" you mean you are not in an investment role. In that case, just take my word on this one.
+1 to Dunder, Whatever1984 doesn't know what he is talking about here. The large asset managers mentioned in this thread hire out of undergrad every year.
I don't know of a single UG hire in any respectable part of the business that wasn't a former intern here, or had family that worked here.
I joined a large asset manager mentioned in this thread out of undergrad without having interned there and I know plenty of other people at my firm who are in similar shoes. I will agree thought that most roles are filled through internships but that is true across asset management, banking, consulting, etc. The biggest difference is just that there are less seats / smaller classes in asset management. Another point worth noting is that unlike banking where a ton of banks take a large # of analysts out of undergrad every year, asset managers have smaller classes (~5/yr for asset class is probably a reasonable assumption for the largest AM firms) and that drops quickly outside of the top ~5-10 firms. I would think the median for undergrad hires across the industry is 0-1 (i.e. most firms aren't taking anyone out of undergrad). If this was weighted by AUM it would be a bit higher (my point is that most small/medium-sized AM shops are not hiring regularly out of undergrad, but that doesn't mean the big ones don't).
We certainly have a bias towards those who interned here or, as you say, have connections.
To your point - if we are talking straight investment teams, strategy roles, etc. I tend to agree with you. If you want a research analyst role, i.e. credit research, good luck out of undergrad. There aren't many spots and it's competiitve.
We do hire quite a few 'marketing analysts' (a cross between internal wholesalers, reporting teams with a bit of analytical support.. but more on the marketing/sales side) out of undergrad. They often end up getting first rights on those roles that open up either in more investment focused gorups or elsewhere.
Work at a large AM firm mentioned above (BlackRock, TRowe, Fidelity) - ballparking but I would say each year we take 4-5 interns (each) in Equity, Fixed Income, Fundamental Research. Conversion rate for full-time is somewhere around ~80% with ~10% not receiving return and ~10% moving to IB, etc. I am in a less competitive group then the ones mentioned above and I was selected from 200 applicants so I am assuming at least 3-400 applied to Equity, with maybe 2-300 for Fixed Income and Fundamental. Generally, kids will come from places like Harvard, Wharton, Lehigh but I've seen kids from Louisville, etc.
Harvard, Wharton, and Lehigh? wtf
It's very competitive, mostly because there a very few seats whereas IBD and consulting usually have a ton of seats which gives you more shots on goal.
FYI, I did not have an AM internship and my first FT job was in AM. Such opportunities do exist.
For BlackRock in LDN, I remember hearing they got something like ~6k applications for FAE and only extended ~30 first rounds and gave out 4-6 offers. Got first round but didn't convert unfortunately.
There just aren't that many seats in the major AM firms/divisions on the investing side whether post-UG or post-MBA. If you're lucky enough to get one of them, kudos to you because it's not easy in the slightest.
That's kinda insane.
So assuming they want 50/50 male/female, you'd be talking ~2000 applicants per place if you're a male applicant. I guess you could just filter it by 2:1 + target + 70-90th percentile in the numerical test + 1 Finance internship. But even then you've got a ton of practically identical candidates vying for the same roles - how can you even distinguish between them at that point?
I interned at one of the big Boston mutual funds (Fidelity/Wellington/MFS/etc). All hire a few interns and most will get FT offers, but they’re pretty small programs (especially compared to IB where banks take a ton of kids). Because there are so few seats, these jobs are super competitive to get. Also most of these firms are using them to increase diversity, so if you’re a white dude it will be ultra competitive to land one.
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