If we were to stage a “Best of…” show about the year’s impact on job
prospects, Elliot Spitzer would be a good choice to serve as our affable host.
And you, as a compliance professional, would no doubt have a chance to walk up
to the stage, collect your trophy, and give the NY Attorney General your
personal thanks for improving your job prospects ten fold.
Your job has now moved from the relative obscurity of a support function
into the spotlight. You can be sure that
any CEO will be interested in your opinions about any aspect of the company’s
business. Companies cannot afford the
financial risk of a compliance failure, but most importantly, they cannot
afford the risk to the company’s reputation or its relationship with the fund
trustees.
A review of internet job boards shows no less than 50 open compliance positions
available to you. There’s reason to think money managers will be staffing up
their compliance departments for some time to come:
Companies will create ombudsman positions, to
ensure that any potential ’whistle blowers’ have a place to air their
complaints before they turn to the SEC or the likes of Mr. Spitzer. Who is better equipped for the ombudsman role
than a lawyer or a meticulously fussy compliance expert?
Other Winners
Compliance is not the only category with strong career prospects.
Other jobs that will assume a higher profile include retirement plan,
Section 529/ college savings, SMA, hedge fund and product development experts.
The retirement plan area is in the
middle stage of a strong growth surge, and will continue to be such as Baby
Boomers reach their retirement years. Saving
for college is a perennial concern, and again demographic trends ensure
that it will remain a growth area. Both
will benefit if new legislation creates universal, tax deferred savings
accounts.
Separately managed accounts are
gaining prominence, albeit slowly in relative terms. Despite the whispers about
the pending demise of the $7 trillion mutual fund business, SMAs have a long
way to grow if they are to capture a greater percentage of investors’ wealth.
But any money manager needs to count an SMA program among its product
offerings. The same case applies to hedge
funds—which will gain prominence as barriers to entry (i.e. investor net
worth requirements) are lowered and as investors seek higher returns than
traditional investments can provide.
Product development experts have
often been the poor step children of the sales department. Product innovation has
often been driven by a follow-the- leader strategy. Money managers will now likely
take a more proactive approach to developing products that will offer good
value-and the potential for better returns—to shareholders.
On the losing end
Fund wholesalers and for that matter, any sales and marketing people who
have only been in the right place at the right time, are not likely to fare
well in the current business environment. Operations managers may find themselves under
pressure as companies move to outsource processing and IT functions. Even call
centers will be vulnerable to displacement as companies examine the relative
costs of supporting an operation in the continental U.S.
vs. overseas.
For that matter, also add to your list of losing job seekers anyone who
cannot survive in a meritocracy. Companies know they can afford to be highly
selective.
As a final note: In the new business environment, if you are not among the
best and the brightest at whatever it is you do, it may be time to consider an
alternative career. Maybe, if you are lucky, you can find a job with Mr.
Spitzer’s gubernatorial campaign team—not that there’s anything wrong with
that.
Charlie O’Neill runs Diversified
Management Resources, an executive search and marketing consulting firm. He was
once a managing director with Putnam, head of marketing for Colonial/ Liberty Funds and earlier was responsible for
marketing services at Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada.
