Vault Career Guide to Investment Management (Vault Guide to Investment Management) By Andrew R. Schlossberg

Product Description

From the Vault Career Library - from a breakdown of the buy-side of the finance industry - firms that purchase securities as investments - to equity, fixed income, and currency markets, a look at the career path in investment management.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #468160 in Books
Published on: 2002-10-25
Number of items: 1
Binding: Paperback
120 pages
Customer Reviews

Honest and Detailed Assessment
First off, I must say that this book provides a valuable overview for those who are interested in investment management. It quickly gets to the point and is straightforward. The explanations of the difference between sell-side and buy-side are helpful as is the characterization of the industry's general structure.

But it is very appropriate to categorize the book as an overpriced appetizer (especially if you were to pay the full list price). I was highly disappointed in its size when it arrived. It's more like a big brochure with a nice cover than an actual book. To add insult to injury, the book has 109 numbered pages, but of those, there are 14 pages of pure advertisements (for additional Vault products or services), title page only, or blank pages. Furthermore, 12 of these numbered pages are glossary and/or valuation technique shortcuts, and there is one additional page of "About the Author". All of this reduces the number of truly substantive pages to roughly 82!

The book focuses mostly on the largest firms by assets and provides only one or two pages on specialist firms, which is really where many of the investment management jobs are. I enjoyed the book, but I scarcely felt like I knew any more about the topic than when I started. Most people will probably say it is worth owning but was rather disappointing.

Honest and Detailed Assessment
First off, I must say that this book provides a valuable overview for those who are interested in investment management. It quickly gets to the point and is straightforward. The explanations of the difference between sell-side and buy-side are helpful as is the characterization of the industry's general structure.

But it is very appropriate to categorize the book as an overpriced appetizer (especially if you were to pay the full list price). I was highly disappointed in its size when it arrived. It's more like a big brochure with a nice cover than an actual book. To add insult to injury, the book has 109 numbered pages, but of those, there are 14 pages of pure advertisements (for additional Vault products or services), title page only, or blank pages. Furthermore, 12 of these numbered pages are glossary and/or valuation technique shortcuts, and there is one additional page of "About the Author". All of this reduces the number of truly substantive pages to roughly 82!

The book focuses mostly on the largest firms by assets and provides only one or two pages on specialist firms, which is really where many of the investment management jobs are. I enjoyed the book, but I scarcely felt like I knew any more about the topic than when I started. Most people will probably say it is worth owning but was rather disappointing.

Not bad, but less a carerr guide than expected...
This book lists itself as a carrer guide, which it is to a point. Some of the best portions of this rather thin book are the portions where a "day in the life of x" is explained and listed on a timeline type of thing. These sections give good insite into what it is to be an associate (post MBA) at several firms. However, there are only a couple pages of this. A majority of the book is very basic what is investment management. There is a subtle difference between what is IM and what does someone working in IM do? There is too much explanation of "in a bull market stocks go up" and "mutual funds invest in a bunch of stocks". Vault should focus on the career aspect more. They do have some interview questions that are good, but this could easily have been 1/2 the length and 1/4 the price and still had the same impact.