Àsset Management V Banking and Insurance

Abbieco

Hi, I am due to start a training contract with PwC in the Autumn and have to decide what area I would like to specialise in. I am trying to decide between Asset Management and Banking and Insurance. Could anybody give me an idea of the pros and cons of each and which one would give me the best job prospects when I finish? Would asset management be very specialised at the expense of other areas? On the other hand with all the stuff going on in the banks at the minute maybe it would be good to get experience in this area? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

ted2767

Abbieco wrote: »

Hi, I am due to start a training contract with PwC in the Autumn and have to decide what area I would like to specialise in. I am trying to decide between Asset Management and Banking and Insurance. Could anybody give me an idea of the pros and cons of each and which one would give me the best job prospects when I finish? Would asset management be very specialised at the expense of other areas? On the other hand with all the stuff going on in the banks at the minute maybe it would be good to get experience in this area? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Go into whatever dept will give you the broadest range of experience and judging by your options that'd be asset management.
Funds and banking is nearly too speciised to start off in I'd think.
But then again I don't work in PwC and where I work departments are organised differently.
Finding out the clients of each dept might help but personally I'd avoid funds or banking.

LightningBolt

ted2767 wrote: »

Go into whatever dept will give you the broadest range of experience and judging by your options that'd be asset management.
Funds and banking is nearly too speciised to start off in I'd think.
But then again I don't work in PwC and where I work departments are organised differently.
Finding out the clients of each dept might help but personally I'd avoid funds or banking.

Asset Management and Funds are the same thing, no?

ted2767

LightningBolt wrote: »

ted2767 wrote: »

Go into whatever dept will give you the broadest range of experience and judging by your options that'd be asset management.
Funds and banking is nearly too speciised to start off in I'd think.
But then again I don't work in PwC and where I work departments are organised differently.
Finding out the clients of each dept might help but personally I'd avoid funds or banking.

Asset Management and Funds are the same thing, no?

To be honest not sure how PwC divide departments

Fiona44

ted2767 wrote: »

LightningBolt wrote: »

ted2767 wrote: »

Go into whatever dept will give you the broadest range of experience and judging by your options that'd be asset management.
Funds and banking is nearly too speciised to start off in I'd think.
But then again I don't work in PwC and where I work departments are organised differently.
Finding out the clients of each dept might help but personally I'd avoid funds or banking.

Asset Management and Funds are the same thing, no?

To be honest not sure how PwC divide departments

Asset management is just the new name for funds. I'd avoid that one as it will leave you pigeon holed at the end of your training contract.

I'd recommend I&DB as I think that gives you the broadest experience, but I'm biased as that's where I trained!

I can't really comment on the differences between insurance and banking. It really just comes down to your personal preference based on the clients you might be interested in working on. Both will provide you with good experiences!

Edited to add - Actually, I spoke to some recruiters recently who we're saying that banks will take on newly qualifieds with backgrounds in any industry. Whereas an insurance company is likely to want to hire someone with specific experience in this industry.
So you might have slightly better job prospects if you go into insurance.
But no massive advantage I would think.

zizo

Im going to choose I&DB myself, AM and B&I both seem quite specialised to me, whereas in I&DB there seems to be a very broad range of businesses.