Making a move to IR like, investment, planning, detailed

MonkeyBusiness

I put up a post a few days ago, but I think it might have got lost among the debt ceiling debate. I was hoping some people could throw out some advice for me.

I may be getting an offer for a job in Investor Relations. I have a basic understanding of what th job entails, but I was wondering if anyone could provide a more detailed account of what the work would be like.

I would be moving from an financial/investment planning position, and I'm really wondering whether this would be a good decision if my end goal is to move into a buyside position one day.

DarienHacker

Definitely better networking opportunities I'd think (you'll work with a lot of buy-side guys presumably)... Not sure about exit opportunities, I'd think they'd be on-par or better than your current role if you're with a small RIA or are like an Edward Jones rep.

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BelalM

Is this investor relations for a regular corporation, or is it a financial firm?

For a regular corporation: you talk about why your company's stock is undervalued by the market and how great your growth prospects are. This is not a track to buy-side research, but it could turn to other kinds of sales jobs, which can pay well if you are good at it.

For an investment firm: you do a lot of hand-holding to ensure that your investors feel comfortable with how their money is being managed, particularly in rough patches. When times are good, you want to remind your investors about how good you are doing, remind them that the optimal allocation is actually if they give you 10% more money, and try to develop leads for new clients. The new client leads can take a long time to develop, but you can get a nice income stream from them if it works out.

It doesn't really lead to buy side analysis or portfolio management, as far as I can tell. However, it certainly is good for buy-side firms, because firms love raising more money to charge fees on, so there certainly is a buy side future with it. One way to improve your chances is if you write strategy pieces that you send to your clients, but that can take time away from the people connection part of the job.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 11:35AM by bchadwick.

Zestt

I had a friend who worked in IR for a non-financial firm for several years after undergrad and used that to move into SS ER through contacts he made through his job.

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Walex

jcole, bchad, and black swan thanks for your responses, the company is mid-sized and a non-financial. One aspect that really stood out for me is that the position allows for the option to get into a rotational role where I could get some experience with startegy and M&A. Another is that the person I would be working under has done a lot of work with IPO's, turnarounds, and PE sponsored companies.

If I couldn't make a straight jump to a buyside or PE position, I figured that it could be a good way to transition to bschool.

profil

Corporate IR - Work with rating agencies, investors, SS folks, some stuff with internal M&A. Need MBA/CFA for this job. Figure it makes ~100-200k depending on the size of the company.

Buy-side IR - Works with investors, consultants, do roadshows, calls, know the portfolio and markets. Need MBA/CFA for this. Salary is lets say 50k for low level, and 200-500k for head level depending on size of the company.

I would say buy-side IR is more sales while corporate IR while is more corporate finance