Looking for a job in fund management? Whatever you do, don’t join a top performing fund.

Recent appointments at Credit Suisse and F&C have highlighted an apparent contradiction in fund management: poorly performing or recovering funds will often find it much easier to attract star performers than those that are already doing well.

In the past few weeks, former Sarasin Chiswell and DWS manager Graham Ashby has moved to head Credit Suisse Asset Management’s range of income funds, following the departure of Bill Mott, Leigh Harrison and Errol Francis. And Deutsche Asset Management star performer Paras Anand has been lured into the newly created role of head of European equities at F&C Asset Management.

Fund managers are often tempted to recovering funds because they offer the opportunity to make a positive impact much more quickly than would be possible at a consistently strong performer, argues Kim Yates, director of recruiter Asset Management Principal Search. “If you are joining a fund that has had five fantastic years it puts you almost inevitably on a hiding to nothing because you can only be as good or possibly worse,” she says.

Katherine Garrett Cox illustrates the advantages of joining a floundering fund. The former Morley chief investment officer (also known as ‘Katherine the Great’) joined the underperforming Dundee-based Alliance Trust last May. Last week she featured in the Financial Times trumpeting her plans to give Alliance Trust a little more vroom.

However, a move to a damp squib is no guarantee of success. Talent – and lack of it – will show through whatever the status of the fund, argues Iraj Ispahani at recruiter Korn/Ferry International. “The reality is that you are judged objectively on the basis of your performance, so it is very transparent. The bench may be less critical and you may have more of a chance of building your own personal brand, but there are no quick wins in investment fund management,” he says.

Poorly performing funds also find it hard to attract sales and marketing staff, who are understandably less eager to work for them given they actually have to sell the performance history to investors.