<p>I've read you worked at hedge fund and I just have a few questions.</p>
<p>I would like to know how you got into a fund as former banker? I'm starting NYU in the fall and will be nterning at a boutique investment bank, but I'm also very intersted in trading, and I already do some on my own. Which finance areas do you feel give a person the best experience for working at a hedge fund in the future? </p>
<p>I know it is very hard to get a job at a hedge fund right out of college, but is it also VERY hard when you have some experience as a banker or trader? </p>
<p>Thank you. </p>
<p>PS, I also posted this on the NYU board since I know you go there sometimes.</p>
<p>I am no jwblue. However, I can answer a few questions.</p>
<p>What type of hedge funds are you looking at? Quantitative funds? Macro? Quant funds employ top guys from very mathematical backgrounds many times with MAs, and PhDs in finance, engineering, sciences and the like. Macro funds however are a different breed. So are discretionary long/short equity funds. You need to be specific, hedge funds are just one thing. </p>
<p>Its still incredibly difficult. The thing there are a ridiculous amount of hedge funds lining up streets. However, quite a few of them are top notch. Often times they are small. And this isnt flow trading, its prop so they want guys with proven P/L track record or very strong analytical skills. Or you need some great connections. </p>
<p>Keep in mind funds arent going to be impressed just with extensive flow trading backgrounds as they focus on commissions, funds do not. Asset management is one area from where a lot of guys are hired as they have experience in trying to earn returns, instead of commissions. The best guys in S&T are eventually given responsibility and may later move over to the prop desk which are inhouse hedge funds basically. A lot of recruiting for lateral hires to top firms go on in the prop desks at ibanks.</p>
<p>Think of it as follows: Would you let just let any guy bet with your money? Thanks what funds ask themselves when hiring.</p>
<p>I have no idea about specific types of funds as of yet, I'm just startng school and my internship in the fall. I'm going to be an econ. and math double major, so I might be a quant guy, who knows, we shall see. </p>
<p>Oh, and I totally understand the returns vs. commissions thing.</p>
<p>A quant wannabe huh!
head over to the wilmott forums. View the FAQs. Read the book "my life as a quant" which is a good book as well as the Hull book which is teaches the basic. You will probably study it in class though.</p>
<p>hey mahras did you see that vault came out with a guide to hedge funds?
Tell me if you want any of the guides, we have access to them for free from wharton (we can download any of the guides)...</p>
<p>I guess Wharton guys start out with lot of useful resources. I looked at a lot of the vault guides (book version), but they were all outdated. But I did find out a lot about some firms I never heard of before, and I would say they're very useful.</p>
<p>Actually, many universities offer the Vault and Wetfeet career guides for free to their students. Check your school's career services website and see if they have a link.</p>
<p>ABirch - I'm not JWBlue but I may be able to help you a little. I work at a hedge fund in Manhattan (am currently thinking of doing a part-time masters in quantitative finance) and got my job straight out of undergrad a few years ago. I got lucky, thats for sure. Through some research work I did while in college I met the guys who run the fund I work for, it was small then, they hired me out of school and now we've grown to become one of the largest hedge funds in our asset class. </p>
<p>When we hire guys, we first go to guys we know. That may sound vague but I'd say most hedge funds recruit largely from people they know - so basically you should try to befriend people you meet who work for hedge funds you're interested in. Most funds, even larger ones, don't have much of an institutional type of operation so there is a less than formal recruiting process. I am not in grad school so I can't say for sure, but my guess is there are almost no hedge funds that actively recruit MBA's on campus the way that Goldman and Morgan do. </p>
<p>OK, so thats the easiest way. The next thing is to look through Bloomberg job postings, most hedge fund managers aren't going to go through the buttload of trouble of putting up notices anywhere else. Most guys in finance have Bloombergs so its an easy medium. Any time we've hired a "stranger" we've put the ad up in Bloomberg jobs and gotten our responses from it.</p>
<p>Know your stuff. The interviews probably won't be as dry as they are in IB. Any fund with less than 20 or so people will make sure you fit their personality, afterall they started with just a few guys and probably hired people they knew for the most part. They don't want someone coming in who can't fit their personality. But they will make sure you know your stuff, they aren't going to train you. I don't even have a graduate degree and I've only been in the business a couple of years, everything I've learned has been on my own for the most part and just watching guys and asking questions. When I interview someone, they usually have a much more impressive resume than me but I grill them on finance questions. We deal in fixed-income so I generally ask questions about rates and bond math.</p>
<p>For most funds, you'd have a better chance of getting a job coming from a trading versus a banking background. At our firm though and many others it is the opposite. We do a lot of private-equity type deals and a lot of distressed investing which requires more banker type skills. So as far as that goes it depends on the strategy.</p>
<p>The one thing I can't stress enough though is this - know as much about the strategy of the fund as you can. Even if the only thing you know is they do convertible arb - learn as much about convertible arb as you can and have smart questions ready. Also its good to have some investment ideas. A pet peeve of mine is when an interviewee comes in and doesn't even know what type of strategy we run. The last thing we want to do is hire a guy who just wants to work at hedge fund, regardless of what kind. If we wanted that, there are a million people to choose from.</p>