Asset Management as a career?

Hi,

I'm a first year studying economics at a semi-target, and would like to ask some questions about Asset management/investment management as a career choice, as this is something I think I would be interested in, but I'm not entirely sure, and was hoping people on here with more experience/info might be able to help.

What is the pay like, and the salary progression, and how does this compare to that in Investment banking, consultancy or big 4 salaries?

Is AM at a bank (e.g JPMAM, BNP, Duetshce HSBC, UBS etc) that different from AM at somewhere like Blackrock or Pimco, and how easy/difficult is it for a graduate to break into AM compared to other finance roles?

Is AM a boring job? From my own research, it sounds interesting (lot of involkvement in the markets), but from reading websites like efinancial careers and WSO, a lot of people say its dull compared to IB? Why is this?

Thank you!!

Reply 1

thegalvan

I bring this up, because I have almost the same questions (and apparently interest) as you.

BUmp

http://www.wikijob.co.uk/wiki/investment-management-vs-investment-banking

The link above has a lot of information for you to review.

Reply 4

FDR

I'm a second year, and I'll be doing an internship at a bank owned AM this summer, so I'll try to give some good answers, but I imagine there will (hopefully..) be posters who actually work in AM who'll be able to provide much better answers!

Pay - I've actually looked online, and it does seem difficult to find salaries for senior AM positions (the values seem to fluctuate wildly from site to site, so looking online seems unreliable), but my pro-rated summer analyst salary works out to about £37k + £4k relocation, and a lot of websites quote £30 - £40k as a graduate starting salary, so this seems about right.

Obviously the pay is a bit less than what those starting out at IB get, but it isn't that much less, and I think its fair to say that on the whole, the hours are a lot better. I don't know how much management consultants are paid, but I know most big 4 roles start at about £26 - £28k, and the hours are probably similar in AM to big 4. To be honest, whether you go into IB, AM or big 4, you'll probably be making a lot more than most people straight out of uni.

Difference between Bank and independent AMs? I don't think there is that much difference - all AMs will mainly focus on institutional clients such as insurance companies, pension funds, corporate treasuries rather than retail clients, but I feel that banks tend to focus much more heavily on the institutional clients, many of whom also tend to be clients of the investment bank - obviously AMs like BlackRock, PIMCO, Fidelity, Vanguard get most of their business from institutional clients, but they also have a lot more retail offerings - for example it's a lot easier to buy a BlackRock iShares ETF, or put money into a Fidelity ISA than it is for me or you to put money into a Goldman Sachs Asset Management fund.

Difficulty? A lot more people apply for IB positions than AM positions, but there are much much fewer graduate AM positions, so the competition is still intense - you'll need a strong academic record and extra-cirriculars, as for IB.

Is it dull? I don't think so, but I'm biased - keep in mind that a lot of IB positions aren't exactly as glamorous as they seem - most junior IBD analysts won't get that much client exposure, and will spend many long hours working on pitchbooks, reports and on excel spreadsheets. There will also be a lot of 'grunt' work as a junior in AM, but as there are fewer people in AM (there were only 5 summer interns in AM at the bank I'm working at this summer), so i imagine that you'll get responsibility sooner.

Hope this helped!

.

Reply 5

FDR

If anyone is still interested, I stumbled across this, which may be of interest to those interested in the salaries of a range of FO roles. I can't vouch for its credibility, but as the salary range for each level of seniority is quite broad, its probably fairly representative, and seems in line with what I've read elsewhere...

http://www.insidecareers.co.uk/career-advice/banking-financial-services-salaries-2013/

Reply 6

NW86

Original post by FDR

Obviously the pay is a bit less than what those starting out at IB get, but it isn't that much less, and I think its fair to say that on the whole, the hours are a lot better. I don't know how much management consultants are paid, but I know most big 4 roles start at about £26 - £28k, and the hours are probably similar in AM to big 4. To be honest, whether you go into IB, AM or big 4, you'll probably be making a lot more than most people straight out of uni.

.

I'll just make one update to your good post!

Big 4 starting salaries in consulting (given we're on the IB and Consultancy page) are all over 30k in London, you're looking at circa 32 with progression to mid 40's within 24-36 months. Not on a par with IB, but still a significant amount more than the average graduate. The salaries for other areas, audit, tax, risk, are slightly lower and (a few years ago) were circa 27k, this may have changed and I don't work in that area.