Carolyn Bell
Investor, English Literature MA (Cambridge), Early Modern Studies MLitt and PhD (both from Aberdeen)
"I’d heard of Baillie Gifford even before I considered fund management as a career – it has an excellent reputation for having very clever people making good long-term decisions."
I really enjoyed my time at university and I wanted a career which would allow me to apply the research skills I’d developed to something that is constantly changing – and you don’t get more volatile subjects than companies! At BG I’m learning on the job how to forecast companies’ future performances and compare this with their market valuations to judge whether they will be good investments. I wouldn’t say it’s easy! But it does mean that I’m thinking all the time – and the more companies I analyse, the more I’m learning to judge valid and invalid approaches to considering what might make a company deliver exceptional returns for its investors. They’re only valid or invalid approaches in my judgement – so you can see that this isn’t a career whereby you learn a skill and repeat it for the rest of your working life, but one where individualism and your own changing perspective matters. The results of the approach you’ve cultivated are transparent once you’re managing money so you need to thrive on that challenge to enjoy this. But who doesn’t want to test themselves?
Once I’m through the training period, I’ll either become an investment manager, layering portfolio construction on top of company analysis (ie I’ll move from making recommendations to making choices), or I’ll head to our institutional clients department where I’ll explain our investment decisions to clients and pitch for new business, which brings its own competition.
Why Edinburgh? I moved here in 2003 after a year in London and I love this city. It’s beautiful, historic – and compact enough for me to meet friends every evening if I choose without any hassle. Why Baillie Gifford? I’d heard of Baillie Gifford even before I considered fund management as a career – it has an excellent reputation for having very clever people making good long-term decisions. And it tends to retain its staff which I see as a good indicator. It’s outstanding in its industry for having an independent partnership structure – so there’s always the carrot that maybe one day you’ll get to apply some of the business nous you’ve picked up from analysing other companies. The likelihood of being able to do this elsewhere is much lower.
I don’t think I’ll ever get bored because at the end of my career the world – and therefore the investment world – will be a very different place from the one I started my career in. The challenges of beating the market won’t be any easier but I’ll have experience on my side.
