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21 Mar 2008, 11:43
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I need in put for a tough decision especially from IM and IB people.
I got waitlisted at Cornell today then got an opportunity for a position at an Institutional Investment firm doing compliance and paying significantly more than my current job. Now one of my goals for going into B-school was to change careers from Biomedical research to Investment Research in IM. In addition to Cornell, I interviewed at Wharton but will not hear from them until next week. This position looks to be filled ASAP and once I fill it, I will need to commit to atleast 2 years to avoid burning bridges.
Question is if I don't get a positive response from Wharton should I take the position and forget about getting off the Cornell waitlist especially given this year's increased competitiveness or should I let the job offer slide and pursue B-school?
How valuable is compliance in terms of getting me to a career in investment research?
I am 30 right now by the way.
Thanks for your input.
I got waitlisted at Cornell today then got an opportunity for a position at an Institutional Investment firm doing compliance and paying significantly more than my current job. Now one of my goals for going into B-school was to change careers from Biomedical research to Investment Research in IM. In addition to Cornell, I interviewed at Wharton but will not hear from them until next week. This position looks to be filled ASAP and once I fill it, I will need to commit to atleast 2 years to avoid burning bridges.
Question is if I don't get a positive response from Wharton should I take the position and forget about getting off the Cornell waitlist especially given this year's increased competitiveness or should I let the job offer slide and pursue B-school?
How valuable is compliance in terms of getting me to a career in investment research?
I am 30 right now by the way.
Thanks for your input.
21 Mar 2008, 13:04
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i work in sell side research, and, for what's worth, work with compliance people all the time. i would not take the job because, frankly, compliance has almost nothing to do with research except that they force us to put all sorts of cryptic disclosures on the firm's research project. i think taking the compliance job in the hope of becoming an analyst is a pretty poor career move because you 1) do not develop the skills you need to be an analyst and 2) may get typecasted as "just" a compliance person. technically speaking, you would be closer to your ultimate goal of working in IM research, but only because you work in the same building with analysts -- there is a pretty big chasm between compliance and research, and it's not at all easy to jump to the other side.
your situation is a tough one because your age is not really helping you at the moment in terms of getting into an IM research role. you could do it just fine (perhaps easily) with an MBA, but with no finance experience (I'm guessing -- is that right?), you will be a tough sell for an analyst job. you are too old for an entry level job and too inexperienced to come in higher up. the one possible saving grace might be that you know a lot about biotech. if you want to conduct equity reseach on biotech companies, you might be able to get a job with a firm that would teach you the minimal amount of finance you need to be a biotech analyst.
you may be aware that biotech equity research is mostly gambling: you make a probability-adjusted valuation on what you think the stock will do should a particular drug get approved or not by the FDA -- it's not exactly "real" research because biotechs are not "real" businesses (most biotechs have no operations to speak of). most finance people start to go cross eyed after a few minutes of staring a strange, foreign sounding biotech terminology, so you could add a lot of value here. even so, i think it would be a pretty tough career move since you have never worked with capital markets, and most non-finance biotech analysts have hard sciences PhDs. a bank or even a boutique firm can train people on the minimal necessary finance, but it can't teach the science.
i hope this helps and gives you something to think about. if you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask. i am not a biotech analyst, but i have worked with the senior biotech analysts at my firm in a minor capacity in the last two years and i feel like i know enough about it to give you a macro overview.
edit: if you take the job, i have to think you will be really pushing it for getting an MBA in the future -- 32 is getting up there in terms of age at acceptance. good luck -- i hope you get in this year and can make the transition smoothly at graduation.
your situation is a tough one because your age is not really helping you at the moment in terms of getting into an IM research role. you could do it just fine (perhaps easily) with an MBA, but with no finance experience (I'm guessing -- is that right?), you will be a tough sell for an analyst job. you are too old for an entry level job and too inexperienced to come in higher up. the one possible saving grace might be that you know a lot about biotech. if you want to conduct equity reseach on biotech companies, you might be able to get a job with a firm that would teach you the minimal amount of finance you need to be a biotech analyst.
you may be aware that biotech equity research is mostly gambling: you make a probability-adjusted valuation on what you think the stock will do should a particular drug get approved or not by the FDA -- it's not exactly "real" research because biotechs are not "real" businesses (most biotechs have no operations to speak of). most finance people start to go cross eyed after a few minutes of staring a strange, foreign sounding biotech terminology, so you could add a lot of value here. even so, i think it would be a pretty tough career move since you have never worked with capital markets, and most non-finance biotech analysts have hard sciences PhDs. a bank or even a boutique firm can train people on the minimal necessary finance, but it can't teach the science.
i hope this helps and gives you something to think about. if you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask. i am not a biotech analyst, but i have worked with the senior biotech analysts at my firm in a minor capacity in the last two years and i feel like i know enough about it to give you a macro overview.
edit: if you take the job, i have to think you will be really pushing it for getting an MBA in the future -- 32 is getting up there in terms of age at acceptance. good luck -- i hope you get in this year and can make the transition smoothly at graduation.
21 Mar 2008, 14:47
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Thanks a million sudden. What you say makes a lot of sense, so now I will concentrate on getting off the Cornell waitlist. If only I knew how or what to do. As an aside what are your reasons for B-school...to move up the ladder? change function?
