Rob started on the Insight Investment graduate scheme over five years ago. Now a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, he shares his experiences with you.
I joined insight in September 2008 after graduating with a BA honours degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford and a postgraduate diploma in Accounting and Finance from LSE. I was drawn to the financial services sector after speaking to a number of people who I knew in the industry for some advice and insight.
Why Insight?
I initially applied to Insight after a contact I had at HBOS spoke very highly of their culture and leadership. While the graduate recruitment process was relatively intense I was able to meet many people from different investment teams during the two day assessment. The overwhelming sense I got was that working here meant being surrounded by intellectual people who were pulling in the same direction. Egos seemed to be less at the fore compared to other financial services firms I had encountered.
Starting at Insight
I spent the first three years of my career at the company's Financial Solutions Group working as part of the solutions design team. This involves helping pension funds construct liability hedging solutions. At first it was tricky adjusting and there was a lot to learn but I received a lot of support from everyone and the team helped me get up to speed.
Moving forward
The level of support extended beyond my team, as I quickly found out about the possibility of moving onto something else, with backing from my existing manager. I even spoke to CEO Abdallah Nauphal at the time to discuss potential career opportunities at Insight. Not many people at other firms can say that they have had direct contact with their CEO let alone discussed their career progression with them.
Insight is surprisingly and uniquely nurturing in that respect. I decided to take the opportunity to move to the Fixed Income Group as a credit research analyst and then later progressed to become a portfolio manager.
At Insight you are encouraged to contribute meaningfully from your first day here and given every opportunity to succeed and realise your ambitions. Interestingly, all of my teammates including the head of the team, joined Insight or its predecessor companies on the graduate programme.
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