Private Market Product Strategy Consultant

1What you'd actually do

• Pulling together data on how a fund has performed - returns, how much capital investors have committed versus how much has actually been drawn and invested, and how the portfolio is spread across sectors, countries and deal sizes - usually in Excel, then turning it into charts and commentary
• Building and updating pitch decks and fund overview documents used when the sales team meets pension schemes, insurers, wealth managers or family offices
• Researching what competing funds are doing: fee levels, fund sizes, target returns, lock-up periods and where they invest, and summarising the differences for senior colleagues
• Drafting responses to due diligence questionnaires and RFPs (requests for proposal - long, structured question sets a potential investor sends before committing money), which means chasing the investment, legal, compliance and operations teams for accurate answers
• Sitting in on or minuting calls with portfolio managers to understand a fund's strategy well enough to write about it in plain language
• Contributing to work on new fund launches or new structures - for example an evergreen or semi-liquid fund aimed at wealth clients rather than a traditional closed-ended ten-year fund - which involves gathering market intelligence on demand, fee structures and minimum investment sizes
• Answering ad hoc questions from sales colleagues at short notice: a client has asked something about a fund's exposure to a particular sector or country and someone needs the number and an explanation today

2How graduates get in

• Asset management graduate schemes are the most common route. Many large managers rotate graduates through distribution, product, investment risk and operations, and product strategy is one of the seats. Roles are usually advertised generically as 'investment management graduate programme' rather than by this exact title.
• Direct entry as an analyst into a product, product specialist or investment specialist team. This happens but is less common straight from university - firms often want a year or two of experience first, so it's a realistic move after a spell in fund operations, client reporting, performance analysis or a graduate role elsewhere in the firm.
• Investment consultancy graduate schemes are a strong adjacent route. Consultants advise pension schemes on which managers to use, so you learn private markets from the buyer's side, and moving to a manager's product team afterwards is a well-worn path.
• Spring weeks and summer internships in asset management or investment banking. A summer internship at a large manager is the single most reliable predictor of getting a graduate offer at that type of firm, and internships often convert directly.
• Sideways from an investment bank, Big Four transaction services or a fund administrator. Private markets teams value people who already understand how deals, valuations and fund structures work, so this is a very common entry point in your mid-twenties rather than at graduation.
• Boutique and mid-sized private markets firms sometimes hire graduates directly without a formal scheme, usually through networking, speculative applications or specialist recruiters. Fewer roles, less structure, often broader work.

3What employers ask for

• A 2:1 is the usual bar at larger firms, though some accept a 2:2 with strong other evidence and smaller firms are often more flexible. Some employers still screen on A-level grades or UCAS points; many have moved away from this.
• Degree subject is fairly open. Economics, finance, accounting and maths are the most common backgrounds and make the numerical parts easier, but history, languages and other essay subjects are well represented because so much of the job is writing. Genuine interest in markets matters more than the subject on the certificate.
• Evidence you understand what private markets are and how they differ from public equities and bonds - illiquidity, capital calls, J-curves, ten-year-plus fund lives. This is usually tested at interview and is where a lot of candidates fall down.
• Strong Excel and PowerPoint. Not optional - these are the tools the work is produced in. Python or SQL is a nice differentiator at some firms and irrelevant at others.
• The IMC (Investment Management Certificate) is the standard entry-level UK qualification and many employers pay for it and expect it in your first year or so. CFA is common but usually started later; some firms sponsor it, some don't. CAIA, which focuses on alternative investments, is more relevant to private markets specifically and turns up in some teams.
• Most roles are regulated to some degree, so expect background and credit checks.

4Skills that matter

5Where it leads

1. Analyst or graduate for roughly the first couple of years, doing the data pulls, deck updates and DDQ drafting, while getting the IMC out of the way.

2. Associate or product manager, where you own particular funds or a strategy area - you become the person sales come to for anything on private credit, say - and start joining client meetings rather than just preparing for them.

3. Senior product manager or product specialist, presenting to institutional investors directly, shaping fund terms and fee structures, and leading the internal work on new fund launches. Timelines to this point vary a great deal by firm size and how fast the business is growing.

4. From there the paths fork: head of product for an asset class, a move into distribution or client relationship management, a move into the investment team itself (possible but not automatic - it usually needs deliberate effort and often a CFA), or into investor relations at a private equity or private credit house, which is a very common and often better-paid destination.

5. Longer term, senior product and distribution people move into business development leadership, strategy roles, or to the buy side as a consultant or in-house at a pension scheme or insurer assessing managers.

6Where this varies

The job differs a lot depending on who you work for. At a large multi-asset manager, private markets product strategy is one specialist team among many and the work is fairly structured and process-heavy, with lots of RFPs and formal reporting. At a dedicated private equity, private credit or infrastructure house the same work often sits under 'investor relations' or 'fundraising' and you're closer to the fundraising cycle, with intense periods when a fund is in the market and quieter stretches between. At an investment consultancy you're on the other side, assessing managers for pension scheme clients. There's also a growing split between teams focused on institutional investors (pension schemes, insurers) and teams building semi-liquid products for wealth managers and private clients - the latter involves more regulatory and structuring complexity and more work on how a product is explained to less specialist buyers. Geographically, most roles are in London, with some in Edinburgh and a scattering elsewhere.