I recently graduated from a top 50 university with an online Master's in Management degree and got to know about the High Potential Individual Visa for the UK, which 2 of my classmates manged to secure. This allows them to work in the UK for 2 years in any role or function. I was planning to apply for the same.

I have experience in strategy consulting at Knight Frank and JLL for a year each and business intelligence at Kering. However, I abhor the consulting industry and have quit my job. Unfortunately the only interviews that I have been receiving have been from Big 4 advisory roles or consulting roles at competitor firm in my country.

My true passion lies in research, particularly in equities research within industries like automobiles, FMCG, apparel, and REITs. I'm also interested in internal strategy roles at startups or business analytics positions within apparel or luxury firms. Additionally, I'm open to exploring research assistant positions at universities, and I've been contemplating the prospect of pursuing a Ph.D or a research degree. However, considering I'm already 27, I'm unsure if time is on my side for such a decision.

Given the prospect of the HPI visa, I would like some advise on cities apart from London that might offer opportunities in my areas of interest. Additionally, I'd appreciate guidance on the most commonly used websites by recruiters in the UK for potential candidates fitting my profile.

Furthermore, I'm contemplating the idea of pursuing an advanced degree like an MBA to facilitate a change in both geography and function. Would this be a viable path considering my career goals and current circumstances or if my goals are achievable with my current degrees (an undergraduate degree in economics and a masters degree in management).

I would greatly appreciate any advice or insights anyone might offer in navigating this pivotal point in my career.

[Edited by gin iodnf on Dec 02, 2023]

There are several topics on your mind, and it's hard to give you clear guidance without one overarching career goal. Broadly speaking, you don't need any further qualification to do equities research, but the CFA is the more obvious once. A MiF in the CFA partner programme, which partly covers the CFA curriculum, is a better investment in my opinion.

27 isn't too late to be in a PhD, but a PhD isn't a great route into equity research. Take a PhD instead of a CFA or masters if you want to a career academic, full-time or tenured, at a research-centred university.

It's challenging to change role, country and industry all at the same time. The path of least resistance is to take a role with a consulting or advisory firm to get into the UK and start to extend your network here. Then after arriving here complete the CFA or some other finance qualification, alongside posting on Seeking Alpha to raise your profile. Ideally, start tracking a group of neglected mid-caps so that you are part of a small to mid-sized pool of people tracking those firms.

The High Potential Individual Visa is online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-potential-individual-visa-global-universities-list/high-potential-individual-visa-global-universities-list-2023

Almost half of the top 50 global universities have MBA programmes in the FT's top 100.

School Name
Columbia Business School
Cornell University: Johnson
Duke University's Fuqua School of Business
Fudan University School of Management
Harvard Business School
HKU Business School
McGill University: Desautels
Melbourne Business School
MIT: Sloan
Nanyang Business School, NTU Singapore
National University of Singapore Business School
New York University: Stern
Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management
Peking University: Guanghua
Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Antai
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management
UCLA Anderson School of Management
University of California at Berkeley: Haas
University of Chicago: Booth
University of Michigan: Ross
University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
University of Washington: Michael G. Foster
Yale School of Management