Career move: Compliance to Research

Water Cooler Careers
#21

Let me highlight 2 words here: young and lady

to make it more relevant, there’s another important word that ryhmes with jack. or something that opens large doors.

#22

Research is a division, not a job.

Yes Sherlock, all investment divisions do research. You don’t say moving to ‘research’ without meaning equity research.

#23

I think there must have been cross wires there. I thought you were implying in your post that research positions were only available in sellside firms. My mistake. As you were people.

#24

crack? track?

#25

Sigh

#26

Rack? That’s not a rude word.

Did you consider that she might have demonstrated some accumen? She might be pleasant to be around (no offence, but you don’t strike me as someone who takes pride in having a similar attribute), she might be a good influence on clients, she might have a positive effect on her team, she might be super creative at framing information. Is that all you can say, that it is impossible, or that its because one of your male counterparts somewhere is a pig?

Anyway I’m a young lady lucky enough to be wielding an impressive rack THE JOB WILL BE MINE IN NO TIME, MY BOSS AND I WILL MARRY IN THE SPRING!

#27

I suggest you go see 50 shades of grey for tips on how to snag your wealthy boss!

#28

there you go, see the problem was easily solved. I knew I could be of help.

so when do I get the invite to the wedding?

#29

You will probably just come and tell us how hard marriage is and how everyone you know is divorced or infertile, and even if we aren’t infertile, our children will probably go to prison or die, because everyone does these days. I mean, sorry, it’s an intimate affair, family only.

#30

^ lol

#31

Alright I will post because you seem a little bit ambitious, a litte funny and seem to not take no for an answer. i work in sellside research at a bank.

A few possible paths:

  1. F500 financial analyst (fp&a) ->sellside equity research: if you’re already in finance, it could be easier to get into research. You’ll still be 1 of 500 resumes in any scenario, but this could work. Especially if the F500 job is in the same industry as the sellside research job. Note i don’t think buyside is possible here.

  2. F500 financial analyst->MBA (a good-top program)->network->research. May slightly improve your odds as you can get an internship in between your first and second year in research. Make sure it’s not a bad MBA program and people actually get research internships from the program.

  3. Private wealth management->F500 financial analyst-> research. All else fails, do a financial advisor job. Yes your pay will suck. Yes it will be sales. But at least you’re doing something with the market, and perhaps advising funds to people. Then move into an RIA or FP&A type position then the world is your oyster.

you can see a clear trend in my paths: at some point you need excel and forecasting skills. Aka work in excel, write stuff, work with financial data. I really don’t think its possible to get a job in research otherwise unless you get into a top mba program. Then anything is possible and people will hire you just because you have a big brain.

your first job after compliance just won’t be in research. Sorry to break it to you.

#32

Well, you seem like a cool chick – I mean I want to be your bestie/BFFL after seeing your replies to Itera. And I’m sure that will help. But you really should be doing stuff like learning Excel, even if its not for your job.

Here it comes. . . wait for it. . . wait for it. . .

LendingClub and Prosper make available all their loan level data. That is a very large data set with tons of information you could learn Excel analysis skills. Okay, that’s my obligatory LC pitch.

In addition to LC/Prosper, there is also Quandl which houses a lot of data which can be easily imported into Excel. You could learn to do things with that as well. FRED is a good place to look at data visualizations.

You also may want to expand your search outside of hedge funds for risk management. The roles you described sounded like quant jobs. There are risk management roles in consulting firms, commercial banks, insurance companies, and plenty of other places.

#33

I knew it was coming and you still managed to troll me, lol!

#34

PWM to F500 FP&A is probably less likely than compliance to FO. There are such little transferable skills. I’d just as soon hire a plumber.

#35

^ hey hey… plumbers are amazing poeple who get paid very well.

#36

^ That’s why I’d hire one over a PWM guy.

#37

^ oh ok, as long as we’re clear on that

#38

^ Plus he could fix that damned bathroom faucet at work that sprays all over and makes it look as though you pissed yourself.

#39

whta skills are missing

#40

i disagree. Adding together buyside and sellside research jobs, there probably aren’t more than 2-300 spots on the sellside open a year and I would guess a similar amount at the buyside associate level. I’m talking bronze and higher type accounts so accounts with at least a few billion in capital, no high net worth picking stock positions.

despite the lack of hard skillset overlap, I think that two levels of the CFA down plus some financial world experience should be enough to get an entry level fp&a job. There are thousands of those jobs available especially if you include all the private companies out there too. Much larger universe of jobs and thus much better odds.

admittedly I have never worked or hired for an internal finance division job.