Finished Bcom/Finance from a good school here in Australia in '11, worked as a reporting analyst at a Big 4 for two years, went back to uni for a MS in Comp Sci in '13, dropped out after a semester to start a fintech company. Been doing that since mid '13 but it hasn’t gained enough traction and have to return to stable work.
I want to give the startup in another shot in future, so I don’t want to commit to something like the CFA just yet. At the same time, I’ve always been drawn to capital markets since undergrad (fintech co. was capital markets related too), and I want something related to capital markets at the analyst level, but doesn’t put me on the track for the CFA.
Given my tech background as well, am I right to assume something like data analyst at a market data provider (Bloomberg et al.) might be the most suitable?
I’ve also got extensive skills in VBA/SQL/Python/C if it helps, though not really interested in quantitative finance. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
So after a bit more research, it seems that these roles might be suitable for what i’m looking for:
Within capital markets: Data Analyst Performance Analyst Market Risk Analyst These also, seem highly interesting, but are not capital markets related: Pricing Analyst (I like the competitor/product research aspect to this role) Credit Risk Analyst Any opinions on any of the above roles? From searching around, a lot of people seem to hate their performance analyst jobs. Can someone in this position share their experience?
I’ve done Pricing (Revenue Management) and I’m currently a Performance Analyst. I think Performance is a lot less interesting in the day by day, but less stressful as well. I don’t hate my job I just don’t think it’s giving me the skill set I need to move forward in any meaningful way. If you have any specific questions you can ask me.
Thanks for the insights. If you stuck with the pricing analyst role, what would it of likely led to? I can’t find too much out there other than “senior pricing analyst”.
Also I’m assuming you took the performance analyst role to do something more investment related right? Are you hoping to transition into a F/O role where you are?
I was doing Travel/Hospitality. I know a lot of people who left my company but continued in the field. Most went to other Travel/Hospitality fields (Hotels, Airlines, Rental Cars, Online Travel Agents, Venue/Facilities Management) or our company’s competitors. I know others that went to healthcare, electronics, media and oil. Anything that has a price needs someone to help determine how to get it. This could be the main distinction between Pricing and Revenue Management. Pricing is more concerned with setting a price, revenue management involves which channels will you sell the product through and at what price for each channel to maximize revenue. There is also some effect on which industry you price in will effect where you can move. If you work in cars you might move to a manufacturer.
Revenue Management role progression is getting more control over the pie. I started off implementing the pricing of one brand at 7 locations based on anothers strategy. I was then put in charge of a small area’s revenue management across all of the brands. Over time I took over a larger area including one of the bigger airports in the country. People above me were responsible for very important revenue areas (NYC, LAX, DC, MIA). The next step would be to oversee all people doing revenue management within a given region (NE, SW, Mid-Atlantic, W, Central, etc). Finally you would be in charge of the entire department. At least that was how our department was set up.
I left to get closer to investment related things, move to NYC area, get paid more, better name recognition, etc. I do hope to transition into a F/O role at some point. A friend of mine just went to a F/O PWM w/ $3B AUM from here. He is a rare example of this happening though. Overall the people in my Performance department seem miserable but they don’t want to do anything outside of their normal functions to move ahead (more school, cfa, etc). This is why I said I’m not sure it’s giving me the proper skill set. I just scored a 710 GMAT so I’m thinking of applying to school if I don’t get traction soon.