Best bets for careers in financial services? Check the back office

The jobs of the front-office executives or fund managers in financial services may appear to be the most desirable, but the back-office may actually present the best long-term opportunities for people entering the industry. That's the advice of Aaron Brown, risk manager at AQR Investments, who is speaking here in Dayton, Ohio today at the R.I.S.E Investment Forum in front of 1,600 students. "A lot of the intelligent innovation in this business takes place in the back-office," said Mr. Brown, in an interview with InvestmentNews. "The quality of life is probably better too; it's more predictable and can expose you to a broad range of skills," Mr. Brown added. "The front-office, even though it may seem to be more glamorous, can often be about luck." Mr. Brown, who has spoken to students at the R.I.S.E. Forum at the University of Dayton for the last five years, noted that this is still a "tumultuous" time to be entering the financial services business. While markets have recovered somewhat, there are still many global financial issues that have been left unresolved. "The environment may have deterred people from entering the business," he said. "But it's deterring the people who should be deterred. It's a harder time to get into finance, but the people who make it through now will thrive."