Investments Consulting Graduate Programme Leeds 2022

The Business  

The Investment business aims to create sustainable competitive advantage for clients in their investment portfolios. This is delivered to clients by providing expert advice on their investments and decision-making processes, making investment decisions on their behalf through delegated investment services and providing investment tools.

Our clients are a diverse range of institutional investors, including large pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations and family offices. As a trusted partner to over 1,200 clients, we advise on over $2.6 trillion of global assets and have discretion over more than $180 billion of assets globally.

Clients require portfolios that are tailored to their goals, are cost effective and deliver strong returns with controlled risk.  As an innovative firm with multi-asset capability and a fiduciary mind-set, the team can change the way clients govern themselves and invest as well as influence the way the investment industry operates – our ethos is ‘Investing today for a more sustainable tomorrow.’

The Role

You will be part of a collaborative team, working alongside some of the industry’s top consultants.  You will work on a wide variety of projects working for sophisticated clients, including many household names.

The investment business offers a range of career paths to suit individual skills and interests.  Whether your career path focuses on deep research of global asset classes, managing risk through sophisticated modelling, improving investment outcomes though expert advice or implementing innovative investment solutions, you will be supported in achieving either a CFA or Actuarial qualification. 

You will work in one or more of the following teams:

• Client Team – as part of the Client Team you will manage client relationships to offer best-in-class advice or solutions to address a range of investment matters ranging from investment strategy, liability hedging and manager structure through to performance and manager monitoring.  You will also provide solutions to institutional clients that enhance their governance and allow them to construct best-in-class investment portfolios.  You will work with specialist teams to construct and implement efficient investment portfolios that will achieve a client’s given risk and return objectives. Clients that you will be working with will include defined benefits pension schemes, defined contribution pension schemes, sovereign wealth fund, endowments, foundations and family offices.
• Manager Research – you will work as part of a research team, using robust research techniques to form a view of Investment managers across the world and across asset classes.  This research contributes to building investment portfolios that seek to deliver differentiated investment outcomes, both from a return and risk perspective.

We support graduates to develop a broad range of technical and soft skills. This breadth of knowledge across the investment spectrum will allow you to identify which topics you find most interesting and explore them further.  There are also opportunities to contribute to extra-curricular projects.

As part of a forward thinking organisation you will work in an inclusive environment that recognises the importance of diversity of thought in achieving success.  Whilst working hard and having fun our ultimate mission is to create better outcomes for beneficiaries and ensure fairness for asset owners.

Learning and Development

We are committed to providing continuous professional development to all of our colleagues. For graduates specifically, we provide:

• An induction process where you can learn what our business does, what resources are available, and who the other new graduates are
• A series of investment-specific classroom trainings (both technical and soft-skills)
• On-the-job experiences allowing you to see the immediate impact of your work
• Opportunities to work on a diverse range of client projects with experience professionals
• A formal mentorship programme in addition to your individual people manager
• Rotation opportunities (between teams and/or regions)
• An on-demand and comprehensive catalogue of online skills training
• Quarterly analyst-specific business updates

 We will continue to provide additional support for you throughout your career at Willis Towers Watson.

Study support

Graduates also receive a highly competitive study support package for Actuarial or CFA exams. This package includes:

• Study materials and tutorials
• Exam sitting fees
• Generous paid study leave
• Membership fees
• Mentorship

Salary increases for exam success (on top of potential increases awarded as part of annual review)

The Requirements

Minimum 2:1 degree in any discipline

The Application Process

Stage 1: Online application, including CV

Stage 2: Invitation to complete online assessment tool

Stage 3: Video interview – in partnership with the Bright Network, we have created an academy module on ‘How to Ace your Video Interview’. Click here to sign up and watch it!

Stage 4: Assessment centre – this is an opportunity for you to meet with members of the team and for the team to understand your strengths, preferences and motivations.  The assessment will take place virtually, using Teams, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions.

Stage 5: Offer and on-boarding

Start date for the UK Graduate Programme will be the beginning of September 2022.

Equal Opportunity Employer