Andrei joined TPT as an Investment Intern in August 2018, having seen the role advertised as he was finishing his Masters in Finance at the University of Warwick.
Five years later, he’s an experienced Investment Analyst leading on projects, helping to manage the defined benefit (DB) portfolio and providing defined contribution (DC) investment advice to TPT’s Trustee Board.
“I was really lucky to join as an intern at TPT. The way the team is structured means you have a view across the portfolio and of lots of different investment managers. I could get involved in a wide variety of projects. An intern with a larger asset management company might be allocated one single element of the portfolio – a manager, or asset class – and run with that. The learning at TPT was much more diverse.”
Andrei started his internship by building an understanding of the different investment managers, before easing into meetings with them and writing research reports afterwards. He learned how a portfolio is created – “which is really interesting when you have a multi-asset portfolio” – and started to review managers and understand what makes some more suitable than others.
I also improved my understanding of responsible investment and DC, both of which have developed significantly over the last few years.
Today, Andrei works on the same projects but at a different level, having gone from contributing, to assisting, and then actively leading activities while considering crucial elements like best practice. A particular focus for him is manager research – identifying the best manager for certain assets and shaping investment strategies – but, he says, each intern will follow a slightly different path:
“Your education, background and interests all feed into your experience, and you find your niche. One of our current interns is more focused on liability-driven investments.”
Andrei puts his career satisfaction down, in part, to TPT’s scale:
“It allows us to do lots of different things in the investment world and – with the launch of TPT Investment Management (TPTIM) last year – we’re doing new things from the bottom up. We’re launching new investment funds, creating a new kind of investment proposition, it’s great experience."
“My advice to any intern is to find out what you’re really interested in and what you want to learn. Whatever you get involved in, take initiative, think how you might be able to make things better and put your ideas forward.”
Take a look at the current vacancies currently available at TPT.