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The world’s asset management industry is notoriously male-dominated, yet investment companies are eager to hire more women. The Financial Times of London describes the shortage of women among investment professionals as alarming.
In the UK, fewer than one in 10 UK funds are managed or co-managed by women, and in the US that figure is much worse: just 184 of America’s 7 000 mutual funds are run by female portfolio managers, it says.
In Asia, the picture is a little better. According to management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, women comprised 32% of portfolio managers as of December 2015, more than double the global average of 15%. China.org.cn reports that women were running nearly a quarter of mutual funds in China as of March 2016, according to Chinese financial data research firm Wind Info.
This, said the website, compared with only 2% of assets and open-end funds in the United States being managed by women, according to a report by data provider Morningstar. In South America and Africa there are even fewer women holding down investment management jobs. The gender imbalance in the workplace is mirrored by student recruitment to university programmes that are training grounds for asset managers.
Lakshmi Bhojraj at Cornell University in the US has an interest in boosting the number of women in the investment industry and has organised conferences aimed at encouraging more women to choose asset management career paths.
She shares practical tips – for men and women – on how to break into investment management. Technical knowledge and a demonstrable passion for investing are only part of the picture: networking and face-to-face contact can help you get a foot in the door, is Bhojraj’s message for aspirant asset managers. – Jackie Cameron
By Lakshmi Bhojraj*
Tip #1: Network
The key is to network – use your undergraduate and MBA alumni networks, your personal friends and family connections and any resources you have at your university to create lists of contacts you want to target and meet for informational interviews. Make face-to-face meetings an integral part of your job search.
Asset management does not hire MBAs in the same numbers as other MBA tracks, partly because turnover is low (a good thing) and the personnel-to-assets under management (AUM) ratio is not terribly scaleable, i.e., one person can just as effectively manage $100m in AUM as they can $1bn.
However, the number of asset management firms is much larger than the number of investment banks and consulting firms that are looking to hire MBA talent, resulting in meaningful opportunities for those who are looking. The more people who know you are looking, the more opportunities are likely to be referred your way.
Tip #2: Learn how to research and pitch a stock/bond effectively
So much of the investment management interview is about gauging the extent of your passion for the business and there is no better way to demonstrate that than by “talking shop,” i.e., pitching stocks/bonds effectively.
This is why the investment management interview is all about having 2-3 securities or a personal investment portfolio to discuss. Be prepared to answer questions about what interests you about these particular securities and the industry they are in (the “pitch”), and what your personal investment style and process are.
Be prepared to be concise or detailed as the occasion warrants but the bottom line is, you need to know these securities inside out as you are asking people to invest in them.
Tip #3: Conduct proprietary research
Depending on the companies you pitch (and they should not be too complicated, well followed by analysts, or obscure), nothing distinguishes an investment pitch so much as doing proprietary or primary research.
This means visiting the companies if possible, talking to members of their management teams or that of rivals, using their product, talking to suppliers and customers, to really get a sense of the demand for that particular product. This will help you answer the critical questions in any investment pitch: how strong are the fundamentals of this company and what view do I have that is distinctive from the consensus?
Tip #4: Follow up with the interviewer, your network and stay in touch
Whether it is an interviewer or the network of contacts that helped you, send them personalized thank you notes and keep in touch. Nothing is more irritating than a “networking leach”, i.e., someone who appears only when they need you and does not bother to acknowledge the help they received along the way.
Most importantly, remember that a diversity of perspectives leads to better business outcomes, particularly in the business of managing money. Firms are looking for diverse talent and as a talented MBA woman looking to break into the industry, the fundamentals are in your favour
- Lakshmi Bhojraj, Breazzano Family Executive Director, Parker Center for Investment Research, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. She started the MBA Women in Investing Conference, as the university wasn’t seeing enough women apply to its asset management program, nor participate in its annual MBA Stock Pitch Challenge or other activities/events targeted at those with an interest in asset management careers. The statistics mirrored what one sees in industry: less than 10% of any given cohort was female, and indeed less than 10% of fund managers are women.
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