Rob Baltzer

Rob Baltzer
Investment Manager
MA Mathematics , Durham University

"One of the benefits of the Baillie Gifford graduate recruitment programme is the element of rotation between different investment departments in your first three years with the firm."

I joined Baillie Gifford straight from university with the notion that investment management was a fast-paced and exciting job which interacted with the wider world moment-by-moment.  I quickly found out just how true this was.  The last five years have seen market-moving events like September 11th, war in Iraq, surging oil prices, interest rates around the globe at multi-decade lows (great for anyone trying to buy a flat in Edinburgh!), huge bankruptcies like Enron and Parmalat, the list goes on.  These have provided early lessons for me in the connection between events in the real world, whether everyday or one-off, and the prices of financial instruments.

So the learning curve for me was steep at the outset.  What makes investment management so rewarding is that the curve doesn't flatten out with experience as it might in other careers.  The prices of shares and bonds, the strategies of company management teams, the economic environment, social trends and politics are all constantly changing.  Each combination of circumstances is unique, offering different opportunities and threats and it is these that investment analysts and managers must identify and act on to benefit their clients.

One of the benefits of the Baillie Gifford graduate recruitment programme is the element of rotation between different investment departments in your first three years with the firm.  My first year was spent analysing Scandinavian companies in our European equities team which provided me with an excellent starting point for company analysis, honing the tools that I had been equipped with in "basic training" and learning about the ups and downs of markets and recommended stocks.  In my second and third years I have worked in the Corporate Bond team, part of our Fixed Income department.  This is an exciting area of the market which is receiving a lot of attention, both within the firm and from our clients.

Like many of my colleagues, once I had set my sights on fund management, Edinburgh was an attractive choice of location.  Despite an office move I have managed to stay living within 20 minutes' walk of our offices - great for getting home in time to make the most of your evenings and life outside work.

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