Performance Analyst good choice

Hi all,

Let me sketch you my current situation, I’ve been in client services of a medium sized Asset Manager for 3 years and recently passed level 1. I believe it is time to make a next step and I’m thinking about performance measurement (my ambition does not lie within sales), which I think can also be a good step to a Front Office role. Do you guys agree? Also in a perf. analyst job opening, they would highly recommend to do CIPM (while I am planning on doing CFA L2 next year), whould it be more benificial to skip a year to get CIPM afterwhich I will proceed CFA? Any feedback is highly appreciated!!!

I can definitely see client service -> performance analyst

but performance analyst -> front office is jump I would classify as unlikely.

I’m in performance analysis and would say that the exit opportunities to the front office aren’t great, but they do exist. My current team has sent a few people to the front office in our private wealth management business, and I recently accepted a position at another company as a senior performance analyst, and that role was open because someone took a job as an assisstant PM. Some performance measurement groups are low level accountants, others do some level of actual analysis of allocations and strategy. I would say that your exit opportunities are probably directly related to the specific job functions you’ll be doing, the level of interaction you’ll have with portfolio managers, and where in the corporate structure you’re located. That is to say, I’m currently viewed as a pure expense, and aligned under our technology services banner with the data entry, back office ops people. The new role I’m moving to is aligned directly under the asset management arm. Things like that make a big difference.

I work in performance and I just interviewed yesterday in PWM to be a type of trader/sales person. I made a post in the career section about it. I think that you can make a move out. I’ve seen multiple people go work on PWM teams, but getting to institutional will be near impossible. There is a good chance of FO PWM if you’re smart and get people to like you. Also, like Twice said it will depend on who you’re doing performance for. Are you doing it for the teams in your city or for people across the country?

I have been working in Performance Analysis for a large investment firm for almost a year now. From my personal experience the job is fairly routine and boring at times unless you are actively seeking out extra projects to take on (but even then there’s no guarantee they will be interesting/challenging projects), but I also took the position with the plan of eventually moving into portfolio management. It’s not easy to make the jump from Performance to Portfolio Management, but it does happen at my firm.

As for CFA vs. CIPM, CFA seems to be the more popular of the two that people in my group are working towards. And I don’t know of many PMs that don’t have the CFA.

This. I’ve also seen performance analyst to client service…but not to front office.

Thanks all, I truly appreciate your comments. I will go for the perf. analyst position, because I’am interested in it, especially the attribution analysis and looking at the specs it utilizes quite a few CFA topics, which are almost absent at my current position. But carreer-wse is a step from CS to Perf. Measurement considered a step up-sideways or down? I would assume sideways.

Probably back. People leave my roll to go work for PWM as Client Service Associates. That’s moving to FO in our business.

I agree with this, although I will say that I know of 0 Client Service Associates/Investment Management Assistants that have actually moved into any sort of PM or Analyst role. If the comp is roughly the same, the knowledge you gain on a pit stop into performance should be beneficial moving forward. You’re certainly not moving into a position with no exit opportunities, but you’re definitely not on any sort of fast track.

I haven’t been around long enough to know 100%, but this seems correct as well.

I think the end goal of the Performance --> PWM Client Service is to get a % of the business. From what I understand this isn’t that rare, but it’s not common either. Not bad considering most of these teams run what would be a good sized hedge fund. I think the move you should be looking to make is not from CSA to Performance, but from CSA to the Discretionary Management teams within PWM. I assume when you said Client Service you’re on a financial advisory/sales team?

the reason is really simple, the skills of client service and actual PM or analyst role are vastly different. I’m still goign to say that jumping into being a PM role from client service is almost none.

if you want to say it’s closer then sure, it is closer. but scrubbing the toilets at goldman sachs is also closer to being a PM than scrubbing the toilets at the local post office .

thanks, I’m aware of the difference and know that a step from CS to PM is nill. But looking at my firm I see more Perf. Analyst moving to FO (excl. Sales) than from CS. So I assumed a side step to perf. measurement is not a bad choice.

Out of curiosity, where do you see them going? I think performance is generally in demand. I get a lot of e-mails/calls from recruiters for funds who promise they recruit from within etc. I just don’t know if I see it where I am. I’m in a BB PWM place.