Graduate Careers
INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
IMAGINING
THE
FUTURE.
Imagining how a future world will look – and the ideas
that will drive its evolution and development
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– Baillie Gifford Graduate Careers
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Contents
Investment Management
04
12
WHY WOULD YOU CHOOSE
A CAREER IN INVESTMENT
MANAGEMENT?
A SNAPSHOT OF LIFE
AT BAILLIE GIFFORD
07
13
ABOUT
BAILLIE GIFFORD
LEARNING AND
DEVELOPMENT
08
14
WHO WE
WORK WITH
INVESTING IN CREATIVITY
AND INSPIRING NEW IDEAS
16
THE ROLE
FREQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
11
18
A LITTLE
ABOUT YOU
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3
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Why would you choose a career in investment management with Baillie Gifford?
Because our world is closer to yours than you probably imagine.
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We will value your intellectual curiosity and
your fascination with how businesses are
evolving to meet the challenges ahead. After
all, you’ll be shaping a view of what the future
of the world will look like – and which
companies will take us there.
You’ll research those companies from every
possible angle – politics, people, culture,
geography and many other factors that could
impact on their performance and success. Then
you will bring all of that information together
into a cohesive report that sparks discussion
and debate.
For us, it’s about building the detailed picture
we need to ascertain the long-term value of a
potential investment. For you, it’s about using
your thinking, commercial acumen and
inquisitive nature to unearth new possibilities.
Investment Management
“We know that the world changes and there are so
many variables in our investment case, but we need
to pick the ones that are key determinants in our
ideas. Having that in your academic background
can be very useful.”
Dora Buckulcikova, Investment Analyst,
Economics and Chinese Language, University of Edinburgh
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Investment Management
ABOUT BAILLIE GIFFORD
Established over
100 years ago
More than 900 people
based in one location
in Edinburgh
16 focused
investment teams
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Three year graduate
development
programme
Over £100 billion
under management
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– Baillie Gifford Graduate Careers
Established more than a century ago here in Edinburgh, Baillie Gifford
provides investment management services for a wide range of clients
globally, from large pension funds to individual private investors.
We look to buy stakes in companies that have the potential to grow
significantly in the next five to ten years. So our work is a million miles
from that stereotype of investors who constantly track markets looking
for short-term gains.
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Instead, our focus is on generating long-term growth for our clients by
developing a deep understanding of the underlying fundamental drivers
behind potential investments. That means questioning everything that
happens around us – and appreciating the context and repercussions of
local, regional and global events. In other words, we are curious about
what the future of the world looks like.
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WHO WE
WORK WITH
Our history has proved our ability to seek out and invest in companies
that change the way the world looks. Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Tesla,
Facebook, TripAdvisor, Alibaba, Ocado… we could go on, but you get the
picture. Let’s call them ‘disruptive innovators’.
“We are trying to consider probability and possibility adjusted
outcomes for (often) revolutionary business models a decade ahead.
If we label what we do ‘investment research’ or ‘company analysis’
doesn’t this intrinsically bias our approach? It suggests a process
that is principally to do with facts, the past and knowable answers.
What if we made the mental leap to conceptualising what we do as
creativity? We could term it ‘imagining the future’. Creativity not
analysis is our calling.”
James Anderson, Partner, Long Term Global Growth
Tesla Motors is a great example – a business that revolutionised thinking
around electric vehicles. James Anderson spoke about Tesla’s CEO, Elon
Musk:
“So what is it that makes him so much more important a figure than the
rest of the greatest entrepreneurs of our age? The answer is outrageously
simple. Musk is the only leader who starts with the question: what are the
most critical problems to solve for the future of humanity.
These are the type of people that Baillie Gifford is interested in building
relationships with. We don’t just invest in the businesses. We work with
them. And they’re exactly the same type of people who we want to
employ within Baillie Gifford.”
Investment Management
Paulina Sliwinska, Investment Analyst,
Arabic and Politics, University of Edinburgh
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“At Baillie Gifford, professional
investors tend to ask less specific
questions, over longer timeframes,
trying to think about the deeper
implications. For instance, we are
interested in how our lives will change
over the next few decades with the
potential advent of innovations such as
3D printing, inexpensive gene testing,
virtual reality and driverless cars.
What will our cities look like? How will
we spend our time? Which diseases
will we cure? Even more importantly
to our clients and us, who will benefit
from these changes? Eventually, I
realised we don’t predict at all – we
observe, imagine, and extrapolate.”
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THE ROLE
While we gave a very brief overview of the role at the beginning of
this brochure, here’s a little more detail of what you’ll actually be
doing day-to-day.
Around 80% of your time will be spent researching. You’ll need to be
imaginative with your sources, which could include researching online
and reading journals, as well as reports and recommendations from
our other investment analysts.
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You’ll also have the opportunity to meet with the companies you are
evaluating, either in our offices or by travelling internationally. In fact,
many of our graduate trainees comment on how surprised they are to
be meeting CEOs of major organisations so early in their careers.
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There is a strong creative and entrepreneurial aspect to this job. You
are looking for the unique angle or insight that enables us to spot an
investment opportunity that others may have missed.
That’s why looking at numbers, balance sheets and accounts is actually
a small part of the role. Trying to imagine where these companies might
be in five or ten years’ time is much more about identifying great
corporate cultures and management teams, thinking about how
industries and competitive positions might evolve, and may well involve
researching politics, socio-economic conditions, and current affairs too.
“This is a research
role. You are trained
to research harder and
deeper, and get to speak
to and meet leading
experts from around the
world.”
“It’s not a task-based/
repetitive job, day-in dayout. The variety of things I
look at is huge, from online
retailers to niche software
providers to industrial
companies to companies
that could transform the
way we treat cancer.”
“Who knows where
emerging markets will be
in 10 years’ time? Why
do some countries grow
and others don’t? How do
some create conditions in
which entrepreneurship
can flourish? I enjoy
the uncertainty and
ambiguity of it all.”
Lucy Isles, Investment Analyst,
International Relations and
History, University of St Andrews
Kate Fox, Investment Manager,
Economics and Mathematics,
University of Edinburgh
Will Sutcliffe, Partner,
History, University of Glasgow
After all of that, you’ll use your findings to write a report or stock
recommendation, which you will then present to your team for debate.
Having learned how to articulate in-depth information and your viewpoint
through academic writing, this will be familiar territory to you.
Investment Management
A LITTLE
ABOUT YOU
You also need to be keen to learn and build a long-term
career with us. It takes at least five to six years to become
fully conversant with the job and how to invest. We’re here
to support you of course. We want you to succeed and will
help you every step of the way. But you have to stand on
your own two feet and be motivated by your own
intellectual curiosity.
Tom Slater, Partner, Computer Science &
Mathematics, University of Edinburgh
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We’ll be up front about this: Baillie Gifford is not a business
where you can keep your head down, work hard and
expect to succeed. You have to be willing to put your hand
up and be judged.
“At Baillie Gifford you gain a wide
range of knowledge about many
subjects, but not from textbooks or
newspapers. You meet people who
change the world: innovative, inspiring
people like Jeff Bezos at Amazon.
Ultimately your motivation should be
to pursue what you’re most interested
in. We want people with an original
perspective who can explore, question
and come up with fresh ideas.”
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– Baillie Gifford Graduate Careers
LOOKING FOR A DIFFERENT ANGLE
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A snapshot of life at Baillie Gifford.
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DORA
BUCKULCIKOVA
INVESTMENT ANALYST
University of Edinburgh –
MA Economics and Chinese,
2014
I’ve always been fascinated by China, its language, culture
and economy. So when I joined Baillie Gifford, I was lucky
that my initial focus was on several companies with a Chinese
exposure. This led to a two-week visit to China, one of the high
points of my time here so far. Baillie Gifford definitely plays to
your strengths and there’s plenty of freedom early on.
I would say that the job is 50% talking to people and 50%
being on my own, thinking and writing research papers.
During my time here I have attended conferences and reported
on insights, researched in-depth academic articles and met
with senior company directors in Stockholm, Paris, London
and, of course, China.
Personally, I find that freedom really energising. Once you’ve
agreed with your team what your sector or company interests
are, you can follow it up your own way. The challenge, of
course, is to go beyond the areas that you’re interested in. That
way you can find something that’s completely fresh where you
can bring a different angle. There’s lots of information out
there, but the trick is to filter out the noise.
It takes a little time to get used to the different styles of
investment in the different teams, but colleagues are always
quick to guide you and help you understand things. Some
portfolios are diversified, for example, while others are more
concentrated. It’s this exposure and variety that makes my day
so interesting.
Investment Management
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
We take a long-term view of our investments – and our
people too. So you’ll spend three years rotating
around our investment teams, working with and
learning from very smart people on a daily basis.
The job is to a large degree a creative one. Contrary
to popular belief, spreadsheets are not a prominent
feature. I think of it as more akin to an investigator’s
work or to journalism.”
Michael Pye, Iranian Studies, University of St Andrews
INDUCTION
FIRST YEAR
YEARS TWO
AND THREE
A structured induction that will
take you through the basics of
investment analysis, introduce
you to the firm and give you an
overview of the clients that we
work with.
You’ll work towards CFA (Chartered
Financial Analyst) Level 1 and IMC
(Investment Management Certificate)
qualifications. We’ll give you full
support by paying for your
registration and materials, and giving
you time to study. Your first year will
be spent with one team, learning
about its specialism in detail before
rotating to another team.
You will have the option to
continue with CFA Levels 2 and
3 – again with our full support.
You’ll also rotate each year to a
new team, gaining a broad view
of the different investment
areas and geographical regions
we work in.
Your learning won’t stop there either. We support every one of our colleagues to continue their professional development
throughout their time with us.
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There’s constant on-the-job training, as well as study
leave to help you achieve professional qualifications,
the opportunity to build soft skills and a mentor
supporting you throughout your programme. As for
the future, you could develop your career into an
Investment Manager, Senior Analyst or Client
Management role. You could even become a partner
in the firm.
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– Baillie Gifford Graduate Careers
INVESTING IN CREATIVITY
AND INSPIRING NEW IDEAS
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When we look at the world around us, we’re constantly amazed at the richness of creativity, innovation
and entrepreneurial thinking that’s out there. Exploring that world makes our role as investors endlessly
fascinating. But for us, supporting innovation is not just about long-term returns. It’s about supporting
people’s vision of how a future world could be.
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Investment Management
Baillie Gifford supports bursary
funding at Edinburgh Napier
University, giving students who
would otherwise find it difficult
to access higher education the
chance to study for degrees in one
of its three faculties: Business;
Computing, Engineering and
Creative Industries; as well as
Health, Life and Social Sciences.
Now in its 28th year, the Edinburgh
International Science Festival presents
hundreds of events spanning a twoweek period. It is still the largest
festival of its kind in Europe dedicated
to science. With the support of
Baillie Gifford, it has expanded into a
second venue at Summerhall and has
developed an exciting range of shows
and workshops.
Sponsored by Baillie Gifford, the
National Museum of Scotland’s
Celts’ exhibition features more than
300 treasured objects from European
history. Organised in partnership with
the British Museum, this major event
unravels the complex story of the
different groups who were known as
Celts through the extraordinary art
objects they made and used.
We are proud to support The Royal
Zoological Society for Scotland in
its critical conservation work for
endangered species. The Society’s
pioneering educational programme
sees the organisation work with
children and young people to teach
them a range of skills that will set
them on a path to further education,
training or employment.
The backbone of Contact the Elderly is its volunteers, who host the parties and drive elderly people to and from events. A number of Baillie Gifford staff had the opportunity to join
this volunteer team, and make a direct and very positive impact on Contact the Elderly’s work.
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We also enjoy supporting new ideas on a smaller scale. Ideas that make a huge difference in local communities. Our 2015/16 Charity of the Year was Contact the Elderly, an
organisation that’s dedicated to tackling loneliness and isolation among older people.
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FREQUENTLY
ASKED
QUESTIONS
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How will my progress
be monitored during the
training programme?
At the end of each rotation, you
will be assessed by the relevant
department and given feedback
on your time there. You will also
have regular formal and informal
reviews with your line manager
to assess your progress.
This is very much a two-way
process, where feedback will be
exchanged and development
needs agreed.
What about career
progression: what role
might I expect to move
to after my training?
After finishing the scheme you
will become an Investment
Analyst and work in one of
our investment teams. From
there you could progress into a
Senior Analyst role or become
an Investment Manager. Some
Investors move into client
management roles too. There
really is no limit to your career
development and if you have
the ability and desire, you
could eventually become one
of the partners who own Baillie
Gifford.
Do I need to have
studied a particular
degree?
We welcome applications from
students with degrees in any
subject for our Investment
Management programme.
In particular, we actively
encourage those from an
Arts, Humanities and Science
background. We’ll provide you
with training in the technical
skills you need for this role.
How are your
investment teams
structured?
There are 12 teams
investing in equities, one
investing in multi asset classes
and three investing in fixed
income.
Investment Management
Where are your
offices based?
Is there a minimum
degree requirement?
Our head office is in Edinburgh
and all of our graduate roles are
based there.
We welcome applications from
a wide range of disciplines and
would expect a minimum 2:1
degree.
Do I need to have
graduated within
the last three years?
We’re an equal opportunities
employer and will do everything
we can to make our application
process as accessible as
possible. If you need support,
just call us on 0131 275 2000.
Do you expect your
employees to relocate?
You will need to either relocate
or be able to commute to
Edinburgh if you accept a
place on one of our graduate
programmes.
We do welcome applications
from people who have gained
post-graduate work experience,
and there is no time limit on
how long ago you gained your
degree.
You will receive an automated
response when you submit
your application to confirm
that we have received it. We
aim to get back to you by the
middle of December to let you
know how we will progress your
application. Depending on the
number of applications though,
this timescale may be extended.
Where will interviews
take place?
At our offices in Edinburgh.
What is the start date?
September.
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Who do I contact if I have
a special requirement and
need help applying for the
scheme?
How long before I
hear back about my
application?
17
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OUR APPLICATION PROCESS
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STAGE
ONE
STAGE
TWO
STAGE
THREE
Complete a short online
application form, attaching your
CV and cover letter. We will
review your application to
assess whether you have the
skills, attitude and curiosity to
make a good investment
management trainee.
We will invite you to our offices
in Edinburgh for a first interview
with one of our senior investors
and a member of the HR team.
We will discuss the academic
and professional choices you
have made so far, as well as
your own interests. You will also
have the chance to talk about
your thoughts on topical issues.
The final stage is more in-depth.
Along with further meetings
with senior investors, you will
also have the opportunity to
meet many different members
of the teams you might join –
from experienced analysts to
graduates who were in your
position last year. At each
stage, we will be open and
honest with you, so you get a
clear idea of what it is like to
work at Baillie Gifford.
Investment Management
Iain McCombie, Chief of Investment Staff
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You need the imagination to think differently to
the consensus. Trainees are not spoon-fed and
there is no rote learning. It’s about people trying
to understand people.
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BAILLIE
GIFFORD.
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Graduate Careers
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Telephone +44 (0)131 275 2000
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