Departments for which interns are recruited:

Internship program for the year of 2013 will be arranged in SOFAZ’s Asset Management Administration which is comprised of two departments:

Investment department- Investment Department deals with the management of the currency reserves of the fund, monitors the current situation at the financial markets, conducts analysis and research on fixed income securities, equity investments, commercial real estate and private equity funds, purchases and sells securities, implements daily routine monitoring of the securities in the portfolio, and develops proposals for the application of new financial instruments.

Risk Management Department develops the analysis and proposals with regards to the fund’s Investment Policy and Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA), carries out selection of the benchmark in line with the identified SAA or establishment of a composite benchmark, conducts measurement and management of risks, calculates investments’ profitability, develops reports with regards to the investment activities, and conducts supervision on the activities of external managers.

Generally the internship program runs for 6 weeks. In case if the Asset Management Administration department heads see any necessity to prolong the program for a better assessment of the intern’s skills, the program is extended by 2 more weeks. The program consists of 5 stages:

I stage: Orientation stage. During this stage interns are given general information about the fund, its internal structure and management, responsibilities of different major departments and their role in fund’s activities, and more detailed information about the department that an intern is admitted for internship. Orientation stage also aims to introduce the department heads and staff to interns as well as to give them useful advice for successful internship.

II stage: Training stages. This stage, gives interns general understanding about investments management and financial markets & instruments and starts with live training sessions. After interns complete live trainings, they are assigned self-study topics to increase their field knowledge. The self-study topics are assigned using SOFAZ’s e-training module – Intuition Learning System, a highly advanced and quick to deploy Learning Management System (LMS).

III stage: Real Case Assignment stage. In this stage interns are assigned to a real project in the department they are admitted to. While working on a real case, they may conduct market research, analysis of a particular investment or a listed company, external manager’s performance evaluation, sample portfolio risk analysis, etc.  İn the end of the real case assignment stage interns make presentation on the case they worked on.

IV stage: Accomplishment stage: If the intern is passing internship in the Investments Management department, he has to also get a gist of what the Risk Management department does and vice versa. The accomplishment stage is considered solely for this purpose. All interns spend end period of their internship in the alternative department and get to know how it functions and joins its activities with the intern’s primary department.

V stage: Final Evaluations: During the last 1 – 2 days of internship program interns are evaluated by the department heads based on multiple criteria. Simultaneously interns evaluate the internship program based on different characteristics. This period defines whether an intern is given a job offer. All interns are awarded with internship certificates. 

• Being a university graduate or last year student in Economics, Business, Finance, Mathematics or the other related field
• Ability to smoothly read, write and speak in Azeri and English (knowledge of additional language would be considered as a plus)
• Communication and organizational skills
• Free user of MS Office software
• Ability to work under pressure   

• Internship experience with one of the largest and world known sovereign wealth funds (SWF) in the world
• Educational and training practice covering capital markets and investments management, development of field knowledge, analytical approach and fundamental analysis skills in solving advanced problems in asset management through SOFAZ online education academy
• Practical knowledge gain in corporate governance principles by being a part of a larger management structure benefiting from the experience of well-known international financial and investment institutions and organized on the principles of team work approach, corporate culture and corporate governance standards.  
• Opportunities to demonstrate best talent and get pass to full time job position in SOFAZ 

Candidates who pass exam with the required score are invited to 3 step Human Resources and Department Interviews in the third stage.

Leyla Amirova

Human Resources Department, The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Neftchilar av. 24, AZ 1000

(+994 12) 498 77 53 (ext. 118)