what is fund services

Working in fund services is essentially back office/operations - valuing the fund, doing distribution calculations, taxes, reconciliations, etc. (depending on how big the company is). The experience is good if you've got nothing else, but if you already have one, not much point trading one for the other unless it builds on your experience.

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sure if there's analysis involved, give it a shot. ask them questions about specific duties. I think it would still fall under the general operations umbrella still.

The end game at a service provider is to become a fund administrator/MO type at a hedge fund. Why not just go straight to a fund and enjoy the 2-3 times the salary and have a fighting chance at a good b-school? Also, you seem to have a vague idea of what "operations" can be - at my (buy-side) fund the ops guys sit elbow-to-elbow with the execution desk and junior ops guys regularly go on to trading positions at other funds.

I'd personally pass on the position you are looking at, simply because it's a service provider and you will be at the mercy of multiple clients and will probably be poorly supported and work with some profoundly incompetent people (source: we use multiple administrators/service providers).

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