Fund accountant - Great way to learn about hedge fund industry
Pros
-Great way to learn about capital markets and hedge fund industry, practical accounting experience, good amalgamation of finance and accounting -decent benefits -pay is okay (can be decent as u move up ranks if you prove yourself) -lots of training courses (on different roles in Citco, excel courses, access courses, different financial instruments, soft skills development and much more) -free beer (after 5pm), coffee, tea, soda, and monthly breakfast, monthly Cake and ice cream to celebrate birthdays of the month, pizza lunches when working on Canadian holidays (Citco takes american holidays off) -if you don't want to stay in fund accounting, can be a good stepping stone to get experience applicable to apply for a hedge fund, private equity, or investment bank (which pay fund accountants more). Can learn many aspects of hedge funds (accounting, pricing, trade strategies, tax implications, corporate actions, different financial instruments, And more if you can move around teams and reach out to right people in yours) (seen a few people take this route) -hours are okay if you are in a good team with a fund that doesn't have insane reporting requirements (9-5:30, a bit later during month end time)
Cons
-seems to be high turnover here for one of two reasons; some teams here have funds which have very strict reporting deadlines meaning employees stay here late during month end (often 8-11pm worst case for very few funds even later) and non month end time may stay late. Keep fingers crossed you dont get put into one of those teams. Other reason maybe because some people see fund accounting as very niche form of accounting and since not as much exposure to full cycle accounting, after a few years experience may seem to be not as transferrable as some other roles outside of this industry. So maybe for younger people who dont want to stay in fund accounting should consider leaving in the earlier years of role (around 2 year mark). -not a certified CPA training office (though they are working on that) (so they dont expense training materials and capstone modules it seems). Also since not a certified training office could be hard to get time off to study for some exams if it conflicts with month end. Though if you have a good team they will try to accommodate.