Investment consulting analyst salary

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bison_foilist

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Hi everyone,
Are there any analysts on here who work for one of the bigger investment consulting firms (Mercer, Watson Wyatt, Towers, etc…)? I’m trying to gage what a starting salary would be for a investment analyst role and what raises are usually like?
If this information is to personal to post, you can email me at [email protected].
Thanks everyone!
 
Really, is that it. Can’t be. That is entry level pay. I would hope these are not entry level jobs.
What is the work experience required. CFA required etc. If CFA required I would say atleast 65k.
 
Are you on the actuarial path? consulting path? operations path?
Consulting at large US city at a large shop you’ll make 45-55k w/0-10% bonus for a straight out of school entry level position. Top 25-50 schools are preferred or top 10 english majors.
 
did you miss the 1’s like 1$$k-1$$k
needhelp Wrote:
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> ~$40-45K. If some prior experience ~$48K.
 
Dudes, CFA is not required for this job. this is straight out of school job, gather data from manager universes and putting it in a report. its just 1 level above the admin assistant.
 
Bipolarboyboston - Are you on the actuarial path? consulting path? operations path?
Consulting path.
 
i dont mean to be a debbie downer. this is like any other entry leevl job. but once you have experiece you will make big bucks.
in the vicinity of over 50K. hahahahha.
ignore that last piece.
 
bison_foilist Wrote:
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> Bipolarboyboston - Are you on the actuarial path?
> consulting path? operations path?
>
> Consulting path.
Bison, i’m not at a larger firm (midsize). Entry level consulting here generally start out of school then move up with passing CFA and time at company. I’ve been at my company for 2 years now and passed level 2 and make in the range I provided you earlier.
I’m in the consulting path as well.
 
Yeah, don’t confuse investmet consulting (even for a Mercer type) with McKinsey strategy consulting
 
Thanks everyone for all the responses.
I’ll have to weight my options.
Good luck on your next exams.
 
A friend of mine at Mercer said entry level Analyst salary is 55k.
 
A CFA would definitely helpful. You might not be using it so much at the entry level, but they love showing clients how many CFAs they have on staff. There will often be raises associated with getting a CFA. Breaking the $100k level generally requires an MBA and or CFA and 5+ years of related experience (emphasis on the latter). Anecdotally, I see a lot of mid level consultants go on to institutional sales positions at buy-side firms. The ones that go to buyside front office seem to come from quant-type consulting firms, e.g. Barra, Ryan Labs, or whatever they are now, and go on to quant firms. Other career paths investment consultants take include in-house investment teams at pension funds, endowments, family offices, fund of funds, etc.
 
Consultants pay like sh!t. I got an offer from one of the top names in the industry and had to turn it down b/c they wanted to pay me a fraction of what I am making now. The only way you get rich doing consulting is if Fidelity starts a consulting group.
 
I work at one of the top tier investment consulting firms and agree with the salary range mentioned here.
However, by no means the job is one level above admin. The learning curve has been pretty steep for me.
Granted that one would not learn even close to what someone would if working at a top tier HF, PE or an ER shop but in the scores of dealings I have had with equity, FI, HF and other managers, I have been able to engage with mid-level PMs and analysts in quality discussions and contribute my two cents. In saying that, most managers are usually very polite to us as they have an incentive to do so.
The plus points of investment consulting roles are:
Great learning curve
Lots of interesting work across multiple asset classes
Lots of ass kissing by managers – Allows for good networking opportunities as well
The negatives:
Shitty pay
Shitty pay
Shitty pay
Shitty pay, further exacerbated by the fact that you meet of lot of super smart PMs and analysts taking home millions a year. Just yesterday I met a guy running a CTA who took home $250M in 2008. I think that because of the basic human tenet of keeping up with the jonses, this factor causes more frustration for most people than the actual salary they make. The senior consultants at my work take home very decent money which is still pale in comparison with what our highly rated fund managers make.
I have spent about three years here, which I have been pretty happy with but now I am thinking of changing to research analyst roles in PE or ER and it is not that easy a transition as some would like to believe. That said, experience at a good investment consulting firm is still far better than most MO and any BO role if the ultimate goal is a FO role at a good shop.
 
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