Advice on working in Risk Management in a mutual fund

Water Cooler Careers
#1

I just completed my studies in Act Science and got an offer to work at one of the largest mutual fund companies in my country as an entry level junior exec in Risk Management.

For someone looking to make a career in Risk Mgmt and with an eye to get in to CB or IB later on, is this a good starting point?

The jobscope is shared as below:

•Perform risk assessment and evaluation of the principle risks of the Company and the funds it manages

•Develop and/or review risk management policies and procedures for the Company and the funds it manages

•Maintenance of the Risk Register templates of the Company and independent review of the annual risk register review conducted by business and support units

•To prepare risk management reports to Management and respective Committees

I’m pretty well versed with mutual funds and know the fundamentals of risk and investing. I just want to know your opinions as to whether this is something you would get in to or not.

Thanks!

Edit: It’s got over USD $10b in AUM. The current size of the team in RM is 3 people

#2

“Entry level junior executive”? “Art Science”? Er, anyway, it seems like a great entry level job to start a career in risk management or associated functions. If you want to get into investment banking, you need to get an entry level role in investment banking instead.

#3

do it

#4

I’m sorry, meant to say Act Science (Actuarial Science).

#5

Go into risk and kiss IB goodbye. Also, looks like Op risk and not even credit or market…

#6

Yes, it is definitely mainly operational/enterprise risk with some market risk involved. Would that be an issue? Is it less desirable/sought-after?

#7

Other than being bored to death?

You have an actuarial science degree, surely you qualify for more interesting finance work. Being in the insurance industry would be a step up from this role and probably better compensated.

Let’s do a little exercise: pretend we are interviewing you for an IB position - please tell me why your previous work experience in Ops/Enterprise Risk would help you add value to our work here and getting deals done. What transferrable skills did you pick up?

(This is in no way me telling you not to take the job, if it’s this or long term unemployment I’d advise you take it and make the best of it. But I do caution you that staying in this role too long may hinder your chances of working in IB/CB depending on how competitive your country is for these roles.)

#8

Do you plan to write actuarial exams?

#9

No I don’t plan to do my Actuarial papers and I have no plans of working in insurance.

At the moment I’m working in mortgage processing/underwriting. Forget about CB/IB, just between the mortgage job that I have and this ops/ent risk job that I’ve been offered, which would you go for? The mortgage job was always something I took only for the short term while I found something more closely suited with my skill set.