Career Advice

Hi All,

Just wanted to get some advice from the knowledgeable people of analyst forum to guide me to success! Let me give you a bit of background on myself and my current situation.

I am a CFA level three candidate scheduled to take the exam again for the second time this year. My experience is mainly in investment management doing back office roles such settlements, corporate actions, and performance. Back office isn’t really my cup of tea so I decided to work at a fashion E-com/subscription start up as a financial analyst and didn’t see much growth potential so I decided to try and move into private equity. All I could find was a unpaid internship at a 50MM PE shop as an investment analyst and I thought it was a good opportunity to break into the space as an actual investor where I source deals, do industry analysis, due diligence and financial modeling/forecasting income statements etc.

It is an unpaid three month internship, I am turning 30 this year and obviously not getting paid is a big issue for me but I am hungry to break into PE or equity research. I have completely given up on trying to become a trader as that avenue has been an uphill battle.

So basically the question I have is do you think this is a good start to get into a paying job as an investment analyst in PE or equity research? Do you think I will have difficulty getting into a legit position as an analyst? The internship is a new fund with no transactions behind it but with smart people working there looking for their first investment.

CFA made no difference for me. MBA could help, especially fi you just leave off the bit about being back office. Take the GMAT, see if you do a home run. If you do apply. If not, don’t worry about it.