To late getting entry-level PM job or analyst job? accounts, research, reporting, manager, getting

sgupta0827

For the last six years I have worked at a small Dallas area B/D owned by Wells Fargo. I worked in brokerage operations in a dept that deals strictly with fee based accounts either managed by our portfolio manager, by outside managers, or by the financial consultants. Our PM does not have a dept or research assistant – he just leverages Wells Fargo’s models/ analyses.

I have been doing composite reporting, monthly market updates, some custom performance reports, occasionally some portfolio rebalancing as a back-up trader, and of course just normal brokerage ops stuff.

I applied for a few entry-level PM jobs from time to time with no luck. Recently I got laid off because of the Wells Fargo/ Wachovia merger. I was not even considering PM type jobs until I started putting my resume out there and low and behold had two interviews in the PM area – well sort of. One was as Performance/ Attribution Analyst for a large mutual fund company.

Essentially my questions are these: (1) even if I don’t get the Performance/ Attribution Analyst job and have to go back to ops, do you think if I got the CFA I&II passed I might be looked at? (2) Perhaps I should get the CIPM also? (3) Can a Performance/ Attribution Analyst lead to a PM role