PIMCO Account Management Or Management Consulting?

Do you mind sharing the salary and bonus for pimco?

I think you should take pimco if you like asset management and want to make a career out of it or sales. If you don’t know what you want to do down the road then take consulting. 

Firstly, congrats on the role man!

I can't really speak for consulting but PIMCO is a solid shop (especially within the Fixed Income space) so you'll be in good hands.

Bare in mind that account management at PIMCO is on the client-side in lieu of an investing seat and hence will be very difficult to migrate away from. But if you're happy to work in a client-facing capacity then this should be a good gig.

Much of your day-to-day work will be sourcing info from stakeholders as there's a big focus on knowledge development by others but not account management. In other words, you'll be memorising a script and will probably need to call on technical specialists (e.g. Product/Portfolio Management teams) to support with more complex discourse.

Compared to management consulting, the above could be an issue, especially if you're inherently an intellectually curious person. For example, you won't have as much autonomy of thought at PIMCO in regards to client engagement.

Another thing worth mentioning is exit opps. Account management will probably lag behind here as many top roles within/outside of finance require consultants. Typical exits for account management tend to still be within the remit of sales/client relations.

I work in AM, but will likely take the Consulting offer out of the two.

It's PIMCO... just the name brand will take you very far and the role isn't bad at all. Take it and don't look back.

What is your background pre-MBA? Curious how you were able to land the PIMCO role.

I’m changing my opinion. You could always switch to another Sales role that sells products that cater to the financial services at the Enterprise level. I vote PIMCO!! Better hours, hot women and near the beach( If in the Newport Location), good money, some crazy upside at the senior levels, andddd it has a strong name. 

How are the PIMCO hours?

EMs/PLs/Ms at MBB happily exit to roles that pay $300k+. So if the hours are expected to be decent (ideally ~40-45, but ~50-55 range is acceptable too) then the PIMCO gig could be a shortcut to a happy ending for you.

Forget about PIMCO in the current macro environment which is going to make extremely difficult for you to sell their funds. You might be able to bank for 2 years without any revenue pressure but after that who knows. Go for consulting.

I mean do you see yourself selling Fixed Income funds all your career? Since it will be pretty difficult to get out of it. You might be able to switch to PB but not that common since you’ll be targeting institutional instead of retail clients.

If those options do not convince you, yeah i’d take consulting. Comp at PIMCO might be negatively adjusted anyways, I would think l/t.

This is really an Apple vs. Orange scenario. They are both outstanding opportunities but very different (some similarities as someone already mentioned any long term advancement at MBB will require significant sales/relationship mgmt acumen). What do you want to do? If you want to be in AM, PIMCO is top shelf and is a deep knowledge shop. You'll be required to learn a ton about macro economics and the markets, even in a sales position. But it won't give you the expertise to run a manufacturing company or something like that. I mention that because the vast majority of folks who go MBB don't stay MBB. They move to industry. PIMCO, however, has many long term employees. Because they want to be with the best and they are. So again, what is it that you want to do?

Time for some soul searching.

Thank you everyone for your valuable inputs.

After lots of soul searching and speaking with numerous alumni working at MBBs/strategy houses as well as PIMCO, I have decided to join PIMCO.

I'm quite attracted to the financial industry and feel like I would have exited to similar roles after a few years in consulting anyway. It's hard to pass on working for the top firm in the industry, which I have heard many good things about. I feel like I may as well take the exit opportunity now. It’s certainly a huge plus that they are paying exit level salary now with upside as I get more tenured.

I Interviewed for PIMCO Account Associate role before. it's really not just a relationship role, you will have to know excel, BBG, and other analytical tools profoundly since explaining the nuances of a portfolio can be quite in depth especially if discussing with private banks, financial advisors, etc. that know their stuff. Congrats on offer you did not make a bad decision at all and the exit opps can easily be PB, Investor Relations in the IB, consulting on the Asset and Wealth side, sell side sales, etc. 

Don't worry about exit ops as this is a great exit op for many. Focus on maturing in the position. Within a few yrs, you'll be earning 500k+ and will likely love the organization. From there you will get deeper in your channel or lateral to another channel (lots of channels within institutional and GWM). Some guys/gals will stay in the account mgmt role their whole career. Why? Because they love it and it pays really well -500k - 1Mish once you're SVP / EVP and performing. Others will move into a mgmt role like Head of Strategic Accounts or Head of Corp Clients or Head of FIG, etc. 

Pretty awesome opportunity without having to work 80+ hours per week. More like 60 max unless your in a PM role.

Do you know which channel you’ll be covering?

Wondering how this might play out if the role were as a portfolio manager (vp level, their lowest for that role).  I get that the job would be closer to the investments side, but wondering about career stability as a pm there as well as attractiveness on a risk reward basis vs a research or accounts role at PIMCO.  What does the “brand” at PIMCO really get you as a trader (lots of people have been citing this)?  Interviews with hedge funds later down the line?  How much better can that be than that you get at any other asset manager or a normal hedge fund trader role?

Congrats on your offers. I work in financial services serving clients including PIMCO, so take it as a view of somewhat of a close outsider.

Account Manager role at PIMCO doesn’t necessarily limit you to a career in AM, but it will most likely limit you to sales/relationship management roles within the industry. Some people at my company moved from AM mostly doing relationship managent type roles.

Based on my knowledge, it should mostly a relaxing but very soft-skill focused roles. Hours will most likely be lower than in consulting in almost all the time.

I think the question boils down to how much you want to do consulting(or don’t want to do sales). If you are really drawn to consulting, take consulting and don’t look back.

I wouldn’t think too much about how these positions may benefit your future start up as it most likely is 10+ years down the path.

I would take PIMCO if I were you, as I enjoy soft-skill centered roles, and I think the industry is pretty interesting, but that’s up to you.

Is MBB recruiting still open? That would make this an easier choice because the comp would likely catch up faster than at T2.

Partner level at PIMCO is Managing Director and it likely pays more than Partner at MBB. Hard to say because it's top weighted. Some make high 8 figures, some probably just 1M+ (but this is the MD bonus on top of the regular comp so any MD is likely making 2M+) . I would assume much easier to make Partner at MBB as there are only 75ish MDs at PIMCO (list is on their website) out of 3k employees. They add a few each yr, not like the masses at professional services firms. MBB may have a Partner per 10 or 15 employees vs 1 per 40 at PIMCO.