Is investment management a recession-proof profession? “Globally, we have $100 trillion in assets under management. As long people are investing and as long as companies require money for their future, there will be a growth in this industry,” said Vidhu Shekhar, Senior Country Head – India, CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Institute.

He was speaking at a webinar jointly presented by BusinessLine and CFA Institute on ‘Career Opportunities in Investment Management’ on Sunday. The interaction answered several questions in the minds of students and young professionals who want to make a career in the investment management – qualifications and skill sets required, opportunities available, use of artificial intelligence and whether it can replace the human resources and so on.

Other panellists included Anil Ghelani, Head of Passive Investment Products, DSP Investment Managers; Miren Lodha, Head of Executive Training, CRISIL, and Lokesh Mrig, Vice-President, Investment Research, State Street Global Advisors, India. The discussion was moderated by BusinessLine ’s Senior Assistant Editor, Parvatha Vardhini C.

Skillsets required

While talking about the qualifications and skill sets required to make a mark in the field of investment management, Shekhar said, “Usually, those in the investment management would have entered the field with basic finance degrees such as CA or MBA (specialisation in finance) or engineering with a finance degree.” He believes that there is a difference between the qualification required to enter and the qualification required to grow.

According to Miren Lodha, before selecting a professional course, aspirant students should look at courses that offer more holistic coverage of the entire financial markets. The course structure should also be updated with what is happening in the industry. “Currently, the ability of the analysts to have a more rounded perspective to what is happening in the financial markets is missing,” he said.

Apart from qualification, recruiters in this field also look at the analytical skills of the candidate. Lokesh Mrig said that the candidates could be from any stream including biology, commerce or business. “We look for those who can showcase strong interest in the financial markets and economics with good analytical and problem-solving skills,” he said.

Further, in a response to one of the audience queries on requirement to have financial modelling skills, Anil Ghelani said, “These skills are must.” He added, “Excel is history now. Languages such as python is faster and easier to handle. I have been learning Julia, an open-source language, which is much faster and which has the ability to adapt itself to various ecosystems.”

The panelists reiterated that there are multiple opportunities in investment management field now. Lodha said, “the debt market is far more volatile than equity in the last few years. This is providing a lot of opportunities under credit research.” He also said that it is the best time to be a risk management professional is now. “There is a need to ensure that the risk is managed within the tolerance limits now,” he added.

YouTube video link for the event: http://bit.ly/THBLCFA

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