I have an interview for this next week and the pay seems pretty good. If I eventually want to go to a Portfolio Management role, how are the long term prospects for something like this versus an analyst or trader role? SUMMARY Responsible for equity and derivative portfolio management. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. Other duties may be assigned. • Updating forecasted stock attractiveness signals • Re-balancing current equity and derivative portfolios • Managing data sources that serve as inputs to the process. SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES None. EQUIPMENT/SOFTWARE USED PC; general office equipment; UNIX (Solaris), LINUX, and/or Windows, Barra and/or other common risk management software. QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty/responsibility satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required to complete the essential functions. • EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE: Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting or a closely related field from a four-year college or university. Coursework in Financial Engineering highly desirable. Minimum one year equity portfolio management experience. Working knowledge of equity portfolio optimization methods/techniques. Knowledge of PERL desirable. Completion of CFA I or above higher preferable. • LANGUAGE SKILLS: Ability to effectively communicate in English both verbally and in writing. Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one and group situations to employees and third parties. Ability to read and interpret technical programming instructions and documentation. • MATHEMATICAL SKILLS: Ability to construct appropriate algorithms to solve business applications design problems. • REASONING ABILITY: Ability to apply common sense and logic to understand and develop and/or implement procedures responsive to specific needs and requirements. • OTHER SKILLS: Ability to work collaboratively with traders, researchers, programmers, data base administrators, systems administrators, and a variety of people within the Firm’s business units. PHYSICAL DEMANDS The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to sit and to use hands to work with papers. The employee occasionally is required to stand, walk, and reach with hands and arms. The employee is frequently required to answer phone calls. The employee is required to spend a significant amount of time using a personal computer, to exercise close vision, and to type large amounts of text on the PC. WORK ENVIRONMENT The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
hey topher, what is your current job and how many of years of experience do you have. This job seems a good opportunity for you.
> PHYSICAL DEMANDS The physical demands described > here are representative of those that must be met > by an employee to successfully perform the > essential functions of this job. > > While performing the duties of this job, the > employee is regularly required to talk or hear. > The employee frequently is required to sit and to > use hands to work with papers. The employee > occasionally is required to stand, walk, and reach > with hands and arms. The employee is frequently > required to answer phone calls. The employee is > required to spend a significant amount of time > using a personal computer, to exercise close > vision, and to type large amounts of text on the > PC. > > WORK ENVIRONMENT The work environment > characteristics described here are representative > of those an employee encounters while performing > the essential functions of this job. > > The noise level in the work environment is usually > moderate. Talk about job description overkill. Does it list the number of times you’re required to go to the bathroom every day?
this is the first job i have seen that specifies CFA level 1 or beyond…interesting. sounds like a quanty joint thats for sure, but may be pretty slick in some ways and a decent lead into managing or being higher up in a quant strategy
I have about 2.5 years of work exp. 1 year as a financial advisor in a sales role and 1.5 years in a MO analyst role. Graduated from a top 20 (pretty much #1 public) L2 Candidate High SAT’s etc.
So anyway, I got this lead through a recruiter. She originally sent my cv for a junior derivatives analyst role. The company came back and said we’d “really” rather interview this candidate for the Portfolio Engineer role. Come in ASAP.
thats nice topher! Sounds like it is halfway in the bag, thats sweet
which public school? UT, Uc berkeley, U of virginia, UCLA, u of michigan or u of north carolina. I am just curious becuase i wanted to get my MBA from a top public school as well. Thanks for sharing.
UC Berkeley baby. Go bears.
Impressive public school, but too expensive to live in Cali. good luck in the interview
topher Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have about 2.5 years of work exp. 1 year as a > financial advisor in a sales role and 1.5 years in > a MO analyst role. > > Graduated from a top 20 (pretty much #1 public) > > L2 Candidate > > High SAT’s > > etc. High SATs lol? Have you ever been asked your SAT score in the last 3 years?
Yes actually. I once interviewed at a bank and they told me they weren’t going to bring me in but my SAT score got me the interview. I’ve also seen minimum SAT scores as requirements for a couple of jobs here and there. Chuckrox8 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > topher Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I have about 2.5 years of work exp. 1 year as a > > financial advisor in a sales role and 1.5 years > in > > a MO analyst role. > > > > Graduated from a top 20 (pretty much #1 public) > > > > L2 Candidate > > > > High SAT’s > > > > etc. > > High SATs lol? Have you ever been asked your SAT > score in the last 3 years?
“While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear” heh
Anyway, I was wondering how this would rank or fit in with respect to other areas of the firm. I see openings for Research Associate (0-3 years experience, no mention of CFA in description) and Junior Derivatives Trader (1 year experience preferred, CFA progress desired, reports to partner of firm)
This job description is from First Quadrant isn’t it? Their the only shop I know that has such anal job descriptions.
Gouman yes. What do you know about this shop? Are they good/reputable? Yeah the 2nd half of the description is pretty pathetic. They don’t even really go into detail the actual analytical portions of the job. I’ll just find out all this info in the interview. I was told this position is higher paying than either their research associate or junior trader positions.
One of my undergrad professors turned me on to the name. I guess he is occasionally outsourced some of their modeling work. I read their global macro investment commentary (it’s free on the website). Their other commentary is pretty good too, I would check it out if your going to interview there. Apparently the firm is very quant oriented in terms of strategy and management. They are big on their people knowing SAS. They do a lot of algo oriented trading stuff. It is also my understanding that the firm does not have portfolio managers in the traditional sense. The models drive much of the investment decision making process. The PMs job is more of a model calibration role as opposed to security picking and trading. As far as reputation goes, most people I mention the name to have never heard of them. I find this puzzling because the firm does manage a fairly large sum of assets. Most of the people I’ve met who have heard of them are industry insiders or young people who are die hard about investment management. I doubt you’ll stumble on these guys unless your turning over every rock looking for opportunity. Overall, the people who do know them seem to respect them as a well run and more sophisticated shop that knows what their doing. It’s definitely on my list of potential firms to apply to in the future.
I have a good impression of First Quadrant. They seem to approach Emerging Markets in a sensible way. However, that bit about physical demands really makes me wonder. I mean, they did leave out what the weight of the paper is, and, heck, if they’re asking me to use my hands to organize paper, I don’t want to arrive and find out that it doesn’t have sufficient rag content to meet my standards of acceptable practice.