Yes I agree that it will be company dependent. The size and type of the company will play a big factor in what is expected from the IR team. I’ve seen mid-sized companies with a head of IR, an admin, and thats it.
If you are interested in going the IR route, a background in FP&A will help, but one of the most important characteristics is your ability to present, and deliver a clear and concise presentation. And I’m talking… face to face meetings with CFOs and other executives. You have to look the part, and not sound like an idiot
Yup, small teams are the norm. It was just me, my boss, and an admin. I think I saw one company that had IR folks scattered across the world, but that’s an exception.
You’re also right that you need to be able to answer questions in person really well. Before I was in IR, I was in strategy & corp dev, and I would often say “I don’t know. I’ll get back to you.” In IR, we tried really hard to never be stumped. If we were, we would at least try to give the person some sort of useful information, since all you buy-side BSDs don’t like hearing “I don’t know. I’ll get back to you.” from IR.
I guess, but don’t expect alot of respect from the financial world. You are just a mouthpiece so the CEO/CFO doesn’t have to be bothered. Everyone knows that. They will be nice to you, but in the end they really just want to hear what the CEO/CFO think, not you.
That being said, a good IR person usually has a finance background so they can keep up with investor questions.
The gig I worked; we did all the capital raising, pitch models, powerpoint, and then all relations once they were investors. Basically everyone else in the company just sat at the home office twiddling their thumbs, including the CFO.
