Post-MBA banking>AM?

How difficult is it to transition from post-MBA banking at a bulge bracket to Asset Management within a bank? So I'm talking about roles in investment strategy/asset allocation/multi-asset class research at places such as GSAM, JPMAM, UBS GAM, etc. Once you do banking, are you stuck in banking, or are lateral moves across divisions totally feasible?

 

Are you mainly interested in long-only or HFs? I think jumping from a post-MBA banking role into a long-only could be a tough sell. There's story consistency issues there that can be hard for PMs to get over relative to a new MBA hire or an experienced person from another buyside shop. I have seen my firm take an analyst from sellside ER (once), but never from a banking group post-MBA. I think you'd actually stand a better chance recruiting for HFs, particularly in certain strategies (merger arb, distressed, event driven etc.) which make heavy use of that banking skillset.

I also think for the asset allocators you mentioned, there could be a credible jump there. Seems a lot more reasonable that you could network internally for a JPAM from their banking divisions vs. jumping to a Fido for example. But honestly I'm not super familiar with those groups.

 
jankynoname:

Are you mainly interested in long-only or HFs? I think jumping from a post-MBA banking role into a long-only could be a tough sell. There's story consistency issues there that can be hard for PMs to get over relative to a new MBA hire or an experienced person from another buyside shop. I have seen my firm take an analyst from sellside ER (once), but never from a banking group post-MBA. I think you'd actually stand a better chance recruiting for HFs, particularly in certain strategies (merger arb, distressed, event driven etc.) which make heavy use of that banking skillset.

I also think for the asset allocators you mentioned, there could be a credible jump there. Seems a lot more reasonable that you could network internally for a JPAM from their banking divisions vs. jumping to a Fido for example. But honestly I'm not super familiar with those groups.

Thanks for the feedback. Your advice is always appreciated.

To answer your questions, I'm targeting more asset allocation/portfolio construction roles rather than equity research. I know full well that going from banking to say fidelity/wellington/capital group/dodge and cox is nearly impossible. I'm not even sure if post-MBA banking>HF is that feasible, but I do know a few 2013 MBA grads who recently made that move.

 
Best Response

Your best bet is to go for a buy-side research role for corporate credit or EMD dept on a FI desk or sector research on an equity desk. If you are expert modeler of a specific sector that you have covered in banking, you can cover that same sector in an AM shop at a level that they would want to recruit at. Most of the places you mentioned have their sector analysts work very closely with the traders (who are usually assigned to a specific sector(s)) . After 3-5 years, I have seen both traders and researchers eventually become portfolio managers; first of their own sectors then across sectors and if you are really good you might go across asset classes.

 

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