I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this for me. I have received an offer to work as a financial service recruiter with a recruiting agency in Toronto, although my background is in finance (2 years of Hedge Fund Administrator back office experience, Bachelor Degree '10 in Econ, CFA Level 2 Candidate) but I have been thinking about the switch to recruiting lately (sounds fun, something like Ari Gold perhaps?). Only issue is that I might not want to stay for long in the recruiting industry because I am planning on completing my CFA and become a Portfolio Manager with a bank here in Toronto. I am currently unemployed and in desperate need for a job, so my question is should I accept the offer to work as a recruiter or should I just continue to look for a job in the financial service industry with an organization that may offer the opportunity to go into Portfolio Managment and/or Equity Research?
I’m scared if I acept the offer and end up working as a recruiter, I may not end up searching for a job actively and thus this may set me back on my experience that could be useful on the resume to get a job with a bank and/or I-bank. I dont know what to do…any suggestion guys, please?
Recommending people and managing a portfolio of investments sound like pretty different career tracks with (aside from some general intelligence requirements) virtually no overlap in key skills. I think it’s Going to have to be just one or the other for you.
It may be a little easier to go the other way, from PM to recruiter (though why one would do that is beyond me). As a former PM, you could at least have a sense of what skills and personality traits would be required for PM searches, but I don’t see it working so well in the other direction.
Recommending people and managing a portfolio of investments ARE TOTALLY different career tracks with (aside from some general intelligence requirements) virtually no overlap in key skills. IT IS going to have to be just one or the other for you.
It IS easier to go the other way, from PM to recruiter (though NO SANE PERSON WOULD LIKELY DO THIS). As a former PM, you could at least have a sense of what skills and personality traits would be required for PM searches, but IT WON’T WORK in the other direction.
If you really want to work in investments, you should probably stay in a finance related job. With that being said, you should be realistic about your chances of becoming a Portfolio Manager, even with CFA, and this should be part of your decision.