Hardly any other product has changed the financial markets as much in recent years as Exchange Traded Funds. In Germany, more money is now flowing into ETFs than into traditional products. According to the German Investment Funds Association (BVI), ETFs accounted for almost two-thirds of fund inflows in the first quarter. They now account for almost a quarter of total fund assets. Index funds that track the MSCI World or EuroStoxx one-to-one are particularly popular.

This raises the question: what will all these fund managers do if younger investors in particular prefer to invest in passive ETFs? Will they become unemployed in the medium term? The good news is that it appears that fund managers will still be needed in the future. But the job is changing. And the job market is becoming tighter overall.

„In a world that is increasingly driven by passive flows, active management has more reason than ever to exist,“ says Arne Rautenberg, head of equity portfolio management at Union Investment. „It is becoming increasingly important to choose your investments with meaning and understanding.“ The fund management unit of the cooperative financial group is therefore clearly committed to active fund management, and does not currently offer any ETFs. „We are growing and will need more fund managers", he says.

Deka Investment takes a similar view. „A culture war is being hyped up that doesn't even exist,“ says Chief Investment Officer Jörg Boysen. „The number of our fund managers has remained constant for more than ten years.“ However, the savings banks' fund unit does also offer ETFs itself – as a supplement to traditional funds.

ETF providers such as Blackrock subsidiary iShares, French company Amundi, and Deutsche Bank's fund subsidiary DWS with its Xtrackers brand, are highly successful in attracting investor money. „ETFs are currently in vogue,“ Boysen admits candidly, but he also sees this as an opportunity for managed funds, as the general public's interest in the capital markets has increased overall.

However analyses by the portals Indeed and Xing conducted for Börsen-Zeitung suggest a drop in available positions. According to Indeed, the number of advertised positions for fund and portfolio managers has more than halved within three years – although fewer job advertisements were placed overall. According to Xing, the number of job searches in this area has remained stable over the same period.

Although not scientifically accurate, the surveys show that the profession of fund manager remains a sought after one – and fund companies have a wealth of candidates to choose from.

This seems to be particularly true for young professionals. „When we advertise a junior position, we are inundated with applications,“ says Rautenberg from Union Investment. „Many young people already manage their own small stock portfolios today. They come from university and have gained some initial experience. The last time this happened was during the Neue Markt era.“ Deka colleague Boysen reports something similar, noting that "we have significantly more younger applicants than in the past.“

This has led to the curious situation that it is ETFs and neobrokers, of all things, that have sparked the interest of Generation Z and the subsequent Generation Alpha in investing – from which traditional fund companies are now benefiting in their search for personnel.

So what can young (and experienced) colleagues expect in their day-to-day operations? How has the work changed? „The job has become more collaborative – simply because the world has become bigger, more complex and more complicated,“ says Rautenberg. „Twenty years ago, the portfolio manager was the star. They oversaw everything and made all the decisions. Today, we work in teams.“

At Union Investment, this means that there are specialists for the various asset classes, sectors and regions. This knowledge is then shared among Union Investment's 180-strong portfolio management team. One of the smaller well-known players in the fund market, Flossbach von Storch, takes a similar approach. There, the 35 portfolio managers primarily manage their own funds, but are also analysts for a specific industry.

Lone wolves who manage their funds behind closed doors are thus becoming a thing of the past. „The best ideas come from collaboration,“ says Rautenberg. Nowadays, companies are looking for people „who are pleasant to work with, because communication has become much more important. We need team players." In addition, Deka's Boysen notes that open-mindedness and mental flexibility are required. Today, the fund manager looks at a utility company, tomorrow it might be a pharmaceutical company, and the day after tomorrow it could be a bank.", he says.

It sounds as if the demands on fund managers are constantly increasing: specialised, yet flexible. Pleasant team players, but always keeping track of things in a complex world. How can one person achieve all this? Especially as the amount of research material is constantly increasing. Countless studies need to be reviewed, assessed and, if necessary, evaluated in a very short time.

Boysen admits that this is challenging. Artificial intelligence offers help with reading and summarising research. „It's sensational, it's an incredible boost to productivity,“ explains Deka's head of investment. But he is convinced that even this technical achievement will not make fund managers obsolete. Perhaps even the opposite. „In the end, it is people who make the decisions,“ says Boysen. „There will continue to be a battle for the best talent. That is the distinguishing feature.“