What might you be doing?

You could begin your career in Asset Management in any one of the following areas: Currency, Equities, Fixed Income, Investment Operations & Client Services, Client Infrastructure, Finance or Real Estate. We'll help you find a role that fits your interests, skills and ambitions but you should spend some time understanding the differences between them. Wherever you start you'll get to work alongside some of the most dynamic professionals in the business and explore an exciting range of activities.

Currency

As a member of our Currency team you'll initially be involved in preparing strategy orders and the daily management of our client portfolios, as well as running and maintaining business-critical spreadsheet models. As your career progresses, you'll have the opportunity to rotate within the team and further enhance your skills and experience with professional training, including CFA and the IMTP. 

Equities

Within Equities you could be working in any one of four teams: European Equities, Global Portfolios, Multi-Asset Portfolios and Emerging Markets Equities. You'll be assigned to one of several roles, depending on your aptitude, your interests and the firm's needs. It could mean working with a fund manager, focusing on growing a particular set of funds through shrewd investment decisions or providing exposure to the full spectrum of stock selection, portfolio construction and trade implementation. Alternatively, you might work in Equity Research, where skilled and experienced analysts track hundreds of key companies to assess their attractiveness as an investment opportunity, meeting with their senior management and analysing their financial reports. In-house equity analysis has an enormous influence on investment decisions.

Fixed Income

There are several different career paths and roles within Fixed Income and you don't necessarily need a background in statistics or mathematics, just a keen interest in the financial markets. You could be working as an analyst within the Credit teams, where you would be responsible for analysing companies that are potential investments for the group. Initially, you would be working alongside and learning from a senior researcher. Alternatively you could work in the Client team, which pitches to existing or potential clients to win new business. This is more of a marketing role but requires a good understanding of financial markets. In Research, you'll expand your knowledge of fixed income capital markets and products, risk management and performance analysis. Within the Portfolio Management team, you'll gain an insight into the firm's core fixed income portfolio and transaction management capabilities.

Investment Operations and Client Services

Investment Operations is a middle office function providing operational support to the institutional asset management business, covering the trade flow through to cash management for our portfolios under management. The core teams within this area are Trade Support, Data Management, Initiatives, Cash Management, Vendor Oversight, Fixed Income Middle Office and Transitions where you could be involved in variety of tasks such as liaising with brokers, traders, cash managers and the overseas offices in order to achieve timely resolution of queries, servicing intra day requests from portfolio managers for the creation of new assets for trading purposes and the oversight of daily pricing for portfolio valuations.

European Client Services covers all aspects of client interaction for both retail and institutional clients who invest in a wide range of products ranging from segregated investment mandates to investment trusts. You could be interacting daily with many different client types, such as individuals, corporates, asset managers, pension fund clients, intermediaries and Sovereigns. The role involves significant networking with other parts of the organisation as the job requires you to assist clients with queries on funds, market views, performance, account activity and general relationship/sales issues.

Client Infrastructure (Marketing, Sales, Strategy & Planning)

Within Marketing, you could be involved in analysing products, client segments and competitors to better understand the market and product positioning. As part of the Sales teams, you could provide operational support to clients, co-ordinate the reporting process or assist in the development of internal training programmes to enhance our client's product knowledge. Within Strategy & Planning, you could develop your product knowledge by researching and developing business proposals used to win new business or by learning how new funds are registered and launched and how prospectuses are updated. Finally, you could gain insight into the business as a whole by producing revenue and profitability reporting used by senior management.

Finance (Accountancy)

A role in Finance could involve assisting with the production of monthly or quarterly management information, giving the business insight into revenues, expenses and profitability. You could be processing legal entity bookings and ensuring adherence to controls around cash payments as well as providing commentary around expense items and forecasting of both revenues and expenses.

Real Estate

As part of the real estate team you could be assisting the acquisition officers in analyzing potential property transactions. Alternatively you could be providing the asset managers with ongoing strategic management of the properties or with market and industry research.

Can you do this?

The Asset Management business is based on long-term mandates and relationships, so it suits people who are analytical and thorough. We need to keep on top of the volatile markets in which we invest, however we are judged by our clients on long-term performance rather than daily or monthly results. A long-range vision, focus and tenacity are more important than instant impact. While flexibility and commitment are very important, working hours are typically shorter than in Investment Banking, and weekend work is rare.

The ability to learn quickly in this business is essential. But we're also looking for people with a proven interest in the financial services industry, especially on the fund management side. You'll need to be enthusiastic and analytical with an ability to recognise patterns in data and events and quickly identify the key issues in complex situations. You'll need to be able to perform under pressure, deal with competing demands and be able to make confident decisions having rapidly evaluated the alternatives. We are looking for people who can express ideas, deliver concise relevant information; people who are ready to develop skills in initiating, managing and maintaining colleague and client relationships.

There's a lot to learn, but also a huge opportunity for the right kind of person to make an impact in Asset Management. If that right kind of person sounds like you, then let's start talking.