Entry Level Qualification 

Graduate

Career Fields 

Banking & Finance

For Specially Abled 

Career Entrance Exam 

CAT, ATMA

About Career 

1. As an Investment and Portfolio Manager, your primary task will be to understand the financial conditions and goals of individual clients or businesses and make investment decisions on behalf of them or advise them where to invest in regards to shares, bonds, mutual funds, etc.

2. Your job will be to extensively research on the capital markets (such as stock markets) and thereafter, to create and implement actionable investment strategies for clients. Hence, you will have a pivotal role in deciding the best suited investment plan for your clients, based on the their income, return expectations, time horizon, risk preferences and risk toleratance factor as well as financial market conditions. Apart from working with individual clients, you may also work with corporate or institutional investors. Meeting with investment analysts, market researchers, and company managers on a regular basis is a part-and-parcel of your job.

3. As an Investment and Portfolio Manager, you will primarily deal in buying and selling securities (stocks, bonds, debentures) to help your clients achieve their financial goals. While some portfolio managers make strategic investment plans and portfolio for their clients, others simply manage clients’ investment portfoliio and transactions.

Key Roles & Responsibilities

1. To meet with clients to understand their financial and investment objectives.

2. To design customized investment solutions/strategies according to the specific needs of individual clients.

3. To regularly meet with investment analysts and company managers to discuss financial matters and market conditions.

4. To always stay updated with the latest market trends, financial tools, and the contemporary economic outlook.

5. To educate clients about the various investment tools available and their unique benefits.

6. To interpret and explain complicated financial information for the client’s understanding.

7. To build and maintain good relationship with clients - both existing and potential clients.

Career Entry Pathway 

Class 10 all subjects as per scheme of studies – Class 11-12 with any subject as per scheme of studies - Bachelor’s degree in any subject - MBA with specialization in Finance/Financial Management or in any other Finance related subjects/or a Master’s degree in Finance or related subject

After completing Class 10 all subjects as per scheme of studies, you can pursue Class 11-12 with any subject as per scheme of studies. Then you can grauduate with a Bachelor’s degree in any subject, and follow it up with an MBA with specialization in Finance/Financial Management or in any other Finance related subjects.
Class 10 all subjects as per scheme of studies - Class 11-12 Commerce along with any other subject as per scheme of studies - Bachelor’s degree (B.Com/BBA/BFSI) - MBA with specialization in Finance/Financial Management or in any other Finance related subjects / or a Master’s degree in Finance or related subject

After completing Class 10 all subjects as per scheme of studies, you can pursue Commerce along with any other subject as per scheme of studies. Then you can grauduate with a B.Com/BBA/BFSI degree, and follow it up with an MBA with specialization in Finance/Financial Management or in any other Finance related subjects.

Required Qualification & Competencies 

1. One option to become an Investment and Portfolio Manager is to do a graduation with any subject and then do an MBA with specialization in Finance or a Master in Financia Management or similar degree or equivalent diploma.

2. You may also opt to do a B.Com. / BBA with specialisation in Finance / BBA in Financial Services / BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) / similar program and then do an MBA with specialisation in Finance or a similar degree or equivalent diploma program.

3. UGC has recently recognised the CA/CS/ICWA Qualifications as equivalent to Postgraduate Degree.

Competencies Required

Interests

Enterprising: You should have interests for Enterprising Occupations. Enterprising occupations involve taking initiatives, initiating actions, and planning to achieve goals, often business goals. These involve gathering resources and leading people to get things done. These require decision making, risk taking and action orientation.

Conventional: You should have interests for Conventional Occupations. Conventional occupations involve repetitive and routine tasks as well as fixed processes or procedures for getting things done. These occupations involve working more with data, systems, and procedures and less with ideas or creativity.

Abilities

Abstract Reasoning: The ability to understand ideas which are not expressed in words or numbers; the ability to understand concepts which are not clearly expressed verbally or otherwise.

Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules and common logic to specific problems to produce answers that are logical and make sense. For example, understanding the reasons behind an event or a situation using general rules and common logic.

Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden among other distracting materials.

Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information from various sources, concepts, and theories to form general rules or conclusions. For example, analysing various events or situations to come out with a set of rules or conclusions.

Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

Inter-Personal: The ability to build and maintain good relationships with others at workplaces and elsewhere.

Numerical Reasoning: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, divide, and perform other basic numerical calculations correctly.

Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.

Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or innovative ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.

Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a long period of time without being distracted.

Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.

Verbal Reasoning: The ability to think and reason with words; the ability to reason out ideas expressed in words.

Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.

Knowledge

Accounting: Knowledge of various principles and methods for maintaining records of commercial and financial transactions and records, preparing various reports and statements, ensuring compliance with commercial and business laws and rules of a country, etc.

Business Management: Knowledge of managing a business which involves planning of what to do, organising resources and people, leading and supervising work activities of people, and monitoring performances of people as well as performance of business. This includes knowledge of marketing, finance, human resources management, operations management, etc.

Economics: Knowledge of economic principles and practices; understanding how various resources such as land, labour and capital are used; how market demands rise and fall; how a country collects and spends money; and similar other economic issues and situations.

Skills

Active Learning: Focused and continuous learning from various sources of information, observation and otherwise for application in getting work done.

Critical Thinking: Skills in analysis of complex situations, using of logic and reasoning to understand the situations and take appropriate actions or make interpretations and inferences.

Judgment and Decision Making: Skills in considering pros and cons of various decision alternatives; considering costs and benefits; taking appropriate and suitable decisions.

Negotiation: Skills in bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.

Persuasion: Skills in persuading others to change their minds or behaviour.

Problem Solving: Skills in analysis and understanding of problems, evaluating various options to solve the problems and using the best option to solve the problems.

Reading Comprehension: Skills in understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Service Orientation: Skills in or keen interest to help and assist people.

Time Management: Skills in prioritizing work, managing time effectively.

Writing: Skills in communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the readers.

Personality

1. You are always or mostly organised in your day-to-day life and activities.

2. You are always or mostly careful about your actions and behaviour.

3. You are always or mostly disciplined in your action and behaviour.

4. You are always calm or generally remain calm in most situations.

5. You always feel secure in your surroundings and in most situations.

6. You can always act independently or could do so in most situations.

7. You trust others sometimes but not always.

8. You act independently sometimes but do not do so in some other times.

9. You are always practical or in most situations.

10.You always or mostly prefer to stick within a routine or carry out routine and repetitive activities.

Career - Job Opportunities & Profiles 

You can get a job as an Analyst Trainee or as a Management Trainee (Relationship Management) in:

1. Financial services companies (for example, Kotak Securities, India Bulls Securities, etc.)

2. Brokerage firms (capital markets)

3. Banks (equity division)

You may also get the role of an Associate Consultant with Financial Consulting / Management Consulting firms.

Work environment

The job of an Investment and Portfolio Managers is a very stressful job. They spend a large amount of time on their computers studying and researching about markets, financial instruments, etc. They always have to be at the beck-and-call of the clients and also work extra hours as and when required. They work nearly 40-50 hours every week.

Career Growth

1. If you begin your career as an Analyst Trainee, you can climb up the career ladder as a Junior Analyst, and then to a Senior Analyst. From Senior Analyst, you can get promoted to Lead Analyst, and then finally to the position of Fund Manager.

2. If you begin your career as an Management Trainee, the next promotion would be to the posistion of a Manager and then to Senior Manager. After that, you can get promoted to Assistant Vice President, then to Associate Vice President, and further to Vice President. The final promotion would be to the position of the President of the company.

3. If you join a Financial Consulting/Management Consulting firm as an Associate Consultant, the next level of promotion is to the position of a Senior Consultant, and then to that of the Lead Consultant. After this, you can get promoted to Associate Vice President, and then to the position of Vice President.

4. Career growth in the investment and finance management sector happens quicker than any other career - an aspirant can transition from entry-level position to senior-level position within a span of 8-10 years.

Salary Offered  

1. After completing youe MBA in Finance/Financial Management, you can earn a starting salary ranging anywhere between Rs. 25,000 - 3,00,000 per month. Generally the salary range for jobs in investment/finance is vast since higher-end salaries are paid to graduates from premier Management Institutes like IIMs (Indian Institute of Management), XLRI (Xavier School of Management), etc.

2. For Associate Analysts/Consultants in the field, the starting salary will range between Rs. 3,00,000 - 10,00,000 or more per month. The higher-end salaries are for professionals who are posted abroad.

3. After you’ve gained about 3-6 years of industry experience, your average monthly salary will be around Rs. 50,000 - 6,00,000.

4. After you’ve gained about 8-12 years industryexperience, your average monthly salary will be around Rs. 1,00,000 - 15,00,000.

5. After you’ve gained about 8-12 years industryexperience, your average monthly salary will be around Rs. 2,00,000 - 40,00,000.

6. As we said, the higher-end salaries are paid to graduates hailing from premier Business/Management Institutes.

7. Apart from the salary, these positions come with the other perks as well - you can earn performance-related bonus, incentives, and comissions. So, depending on how you perform in a financial year, these incentives/bonus/commissions could be anywhere between Rs. 50,000 - 50,00,000 per annum. The extra incentives/bonus increase trememdously as you scale up the ladder.

Monthly Earnings In Indian Rupee

1. Entry level: 0 - 2 years of work experience

2. Junior Level: From 1 to 12 years of work experience

3. Mid-Level: From 5 to 20+ years of work experience

4. Senior Level: From 10 to 25+ years of work experience (there could be exceptions in some high-end technical, financial, engineering, creative, management, sports, and other careers; also in the near future, people will reach these levels much faster in many careers and in some careers, these levels will have no meaning as those careers will be completely tech skill driven such as even now, there is almost no level in a Cyber Security Expert’s job)

Famous Personalities 

Not Available

Work Activities 

Analysing and interpreting data and information: Analysis of data and information to find facts, trends, reasons behind situations, etc.; interpretation of data to aid in decision making.

Calculating and computing: Calculating or computing using various mathematical formula and functions using computers or otherwise; doing financial or commercial calculations or computations.

Communicating with co-workers and others: Communicating with people in writing, verbally or otherwise inside your workplace and various other people who have professional relationships with your place of work including vendors, government officials, etc. or with people at large.

Decision making and problem solving: Analysis of data and information; evaluation of alternative decisions and results of decisions; taking the right decisions and solving problems.

Developing and maintaining inter-personal relationships: Developing professional relationships with co-workers and others outside organisations and maintaining good relationships.

Getting Information and learning: Observing, hearing, reading, using computers, or otherwise obtaining information and learning from it.

Inspecting situations, events, and people: Inspecting situations, events and people to understand the reasons and causes for the situation or events to happen; inspecting people to understand reasons behind their behaviour and actions.

Managing and supervising: Manging and supervising work of others; setting goals; giving instructions; monitoring work performance, etc.

Negotiating: Negotiating terms, conditions, costs, prices and about other issues.

Organising, planning and prioritising tasks: Planning and organising tasks in order to achieve work goals; prioritising tasks to achieve goals and making the best use of the time available.

Providing advices and consultation to others: Giving advices or consultation to others about various issues, conceptual matters, know-hows, scientific matters, products or services.

Scheduling tasks: Scheduling project timelines, tasks and activities.

Strategic planning: Developing visions and goals, developing strategies and action plans for achieving visions and goals.

Updating and using relevant knowledge: Keeping updated with the latest knowledge relevant to your fields of work and use of the relevant knowledge in getting things done.

Using computers for work: Using computers for day-to-day office work; using computer software for various applications in day-to-day professional work; entering data and process information; for writing.

Working in a team: Working in a team of people; developing team; maintaining professional relationships among team members.