Road to a Sovereign Wealth Fund
There are a ton of REPE threads on here, but not too many on SWFs (GPF, CIC, QIA, ADIA, etc). I'm more curious on how you break into these types of roles.
I imagine it takes a while - once you have tenure at a good REPE firm, have an MBA, second language, and progress towards the CFA/CAIA. Probably puts you in your late 20s to mid 30s. Does it matter what REPE firm you're at? How does the recruiting process work? I imagine it is UTR and lengthy. I don't know many people that work at SWF so wanted to ask you guys. I'm international so always had an itch to work over seas...and this could be a long term goal (in addition to other things).
I'm not familiar with the field, so take this with a grain of salt, but I imagine there is not much of a structured recruited process. Probably not a lot of openings and they will likely get filled through employee's networks
I know ADIA recruits alot of junior people from repe shops, had a headhunter who focuses on that fund contact me when i was only like two years of exp.
GIC is also handled by headhunters. Forgot which firm. They go for ibanking/pe analysts
Know people who have broken in with IBD and RE PE background only a few years out of college. Not sure about second language skills, pretty sure a lot of the ones that invest in US real estate have mostly american teams (i know 2/4 that you listed do).
I know someone who did ~2 years of REIB banking before making the jump to one of these SWFs. Recruitment process was through one of the regular PE headhunting firms.
GIC (Singapore) has a scholarship program where they take the brightest high schools students and fund their university expenses + stipend. The selection process is extremely rigorous and most recipients have the stats to attend Ivies/Oxbridge etc. After graduation, they join as analysts and serve a 4 to 6 year bond depending on the type of scholarship. They can then choose to stay on (performance dependent) or move into the private sector. Pretty sure a fair portion of the class is filled this way (not sure about senior positions).
Source - Brother seriously considered this, but ultimately decided against it due to the nature of the bond.
You can get into GIC out of undergrad without having the bond
You can - but a sizeable portion of the class/intake is filled this way. Anyways, SG is notorious for their emphasis on grades/status and I'm sure there is a distinction in the firm between "scholars" and "non - scholars".
Very similar to the military where incompetent officers rise up the ranks simply because they are SAF scholars.
Temasek recruits at a few US undergrad programs; vaguely remember hearing that the interview process was a real ball-buster.
The thing about Temasek and GIC is that both will only offer you an acceleration to the final round of interview for FT if you did well. In addition, both places a lot of emphasis on fit. On the other hand, my understanding is that Temasek is very flexible on the number of people they take in compared to GIC and the rest etc.
Both Temasek and GIC do take in a lot of ex-IB and PE people as well.
Just to follow on from this, an analyst left my firm went to work for Temasek in SG.
Their main comments:
This was not for a REPE position but cannot imagine the culture hugely differs (for the SG office at least).
I'm interested in this a well. Could one break into a SWF upon graduation (or at least as an exit opportunity after a few years of acquisitions) from a top MSRE/D program?
My previous experience is in research, retail and corporate real estate strategy. So I don't have REPE or IB going for me.
To get into sovereign wealth fund, am I on the right track? (Originally Posted: 09/09/2014)
Hi, after spending times agonizing whether to quit the job or not, I am writing to ask your advice. I had been a research analyst at local IB, covering SMEs in IT sectors for 4.5years, and moved to a large conglomerate in primary industry this summer. I now in business strategy team covering livestock/feed biz in Southeast Asian countries. Though it's helpful to look into agricultural business at the moment, I have always dreamed to go back to the stock market. Targeting Sovereign wealth fund in home country, I plan to apply for 2015-16 MSc in Finance.. but still unsure whether I'm on the right track or not. An inconsistent downstream industry (IT-> Agri) is what worries me most of all. Guys what should I add to win the dream job?
Why aren't you happy where you are?
Are you based in Singapore/malaysia (by any chance)? Not to be mean ( and my English isn't fantastic either ) but your grammar and overall command of English seems to be somewhat lacking Most people working in Gic/Temasek in front office functions come from top schools ( ie top us/uk schools - it wont be easy to get in with a masters from any singaporean university) and are extremely polished. Might have to work on that as well
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