Is Investment Compliance a good place to start?

First off, Hi!

I am new to WSO, I have always read a lot of threads on here but have only got round to signing up!

I am a first year economics student and have recently got myself 2 1/2 months work experience in the summer in London within Investment Compliance within one of the UK's largest asset management firms/hedge funds

Obviously I am very pleased with this as I have been cold calling boutique banks/hedge funds for a very long time and it has paid off

My end goal however though is with Investment Banking and in particular S&T, although in all honesty I would take any role (within reason) at an Investment Bank in London.

I will be applying for all the summer internships next summer as that will be my second year and I just wondered what people's opinions were of investment compliance and whether you think its a good place to start, get some grounding within the business and hopefully put me ahead of other candidates for next year?

 

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Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

If you want to pursue a legal career in banking and finance, then compliance is not a bad place to be to gain some experience before going off and getting a law degree. I'm not sure how it works in England, so I can't properly discuss a legal education in the UK. If you want to do S&T or IBD, go with S&T or IBD. You'll get more of a traditional banking experience that way.

 
Best Response

Investment compliance won't be a terrible gig if you're a first year. You can cast your net wide but you'll want to get as close to FO experience as you can whether that's in IB,S&T,HF etc. If you don't land it this year, you can use any BO/MO roles to gain some experience and show interest for the next recruiting season.

Most large structured internships tend to hire rising seniors for interns, so if you can build some some solid finance related (even if it's not directly IB or S&T) experience in the next couple years it can put you in a good position for an S&T internship.

 

Oh first year student. Scratch what I said as I did not read your post. That's not bad for first year undergrad.

Under my tutelage, you will grow from boys to men. From men into gladiators. And from gladiators into SWANSONS.
 

Thanks a lot for the replies!

Yeah I mean like I said, I will be aiming to gain a formal internship in the second year within S&T but my thinking was that with a good, reputable name on my CV, with recent, unpaid work it will look much better than someone who has not done anything in their first year. hopefully!

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