Paul Aziz is enjoying his role at GAM: interesting work, friendly hours and enough money to enjoy London....

Can you explain what GAM do?

GAM delivers active investment management to private clients,
institutions and intermediaries. The product offering spans single
manager hedge funds, fund of hedge funds, discretionary portfolio
management and structured investments.

The company was owned by UBS until December 2005, when it was acquired
by Julius Baer, a Swiss private bank. It has ten offices worldwide and
assets under management of approximately $90bn.

Which department are you in? What is your role?

After six weeks of training and four one month long rotations I chose a
role within the Portfolio Management department. I work on the
investment side, as opposed to the more lunch-intensive relationship
management side.

Our nine person team allocates $30bn within the context of a multi-asset
class, global mandate.

What do you do in a typical day, or a typical week?

The hours tend to be a lot friendlier in this branch of finance than
others. Kick-off is about half past eight and home time is rarely far
from half past six. Unfortunately my ID card doesn't allow me access to
the office on the weekend.

My time is split between:

1) Fundamental research i.e. into specific assets, regions, themes and
products

2) Portfolio construction i.e. quantitative analysis of how current or
prospective investments act or should act together

3) Communication / marketing i.e. with clients, relationship managers,
external fund managers, sell-side analysts etc.

What's your favourite element of the job?

The whole package. Challenging work, fun people, fantastic hours and
enough money with which to enjoy being young in London.

What were your interviews like?

The application process at GAM was pretty standard; a form with lots of
blank boxes for you to wax lyrical about your past, the online maths
test and then a first round interview. The second and final round
consisted of a further two interviews, a group exercise, an oral
presentation to senior management, and a written portfolio construction
exercise.

Where do you live in London, and why?

Home is currently the fringes of Shoreditch. The contrast to the
gentrified streets of St James's reminds you that the world does not
revolve around banking and keeps you from feeling old before your time.

Lastly, what advice would you give financially minded graduates?

Get as much experience as you can. From work experience to internships,
there's no better way to understand what an industry entails or a firm
is truly like than being there. Exploit any contacts you have (family,
friends, alumni...) and find out their thoughts. Those with first-hand
knowledge of an industry will have subjective views, which can often be
of more value than the sound-bites trotted out at milkround
presentations.

Be honest about what drives you, be it money, the challenge, prestige,
or simply how long you will have to spend behind a desk. Think about
the different options you have and which appeal i.e. buy-side /
sell-side, small / large firm, European / US, markets / project-based,
arm's-length investments / working with companies, client contact /
none, Mayfair / City and so on. Make sure you know what you want to do
and be clear about why you want to do it.