<p>I've been reading that a lot of people intend to change jobs after a few years at an ibank. Besides the income difference, how does working at a HF or a PE firm differ from working at an ibank? Do you still work as many hours? Does a large part of your income still come from bonuses?</p>
<p>Also, how big are most hedge funds (# of employees, $)</p>
<p>majority of hedge funds are fairly small employee wise, almost like a mom and pop shop but their are a hedge funds that are pretty big. their are small funds with millions and their are funds will billions.</p>
<p>Hours are less than ib but you still have to be active in the markets 24/7. Hedge funds make money off a performance fee usually 20%. So the more money they make, the better salary/bonus you will get.</p>
<p>Not to familiar with PE, but hedge funds are buy-side firms so instead of always pitching/selling like IB you will be using research/strategy to make the right investment.</p>
<p>hedge fund and PE are what we call buy side firms, they handle money on behalf of their clients. banks are usually referred to as sell-side (they make market and trade their own capital, although there are buy-side functions in banks too, in particular asset management..<em>cough</em> high grade structured enhanced leverage fund <em>cough</em>).
buyside is typically more relaxing, less work hours with the same compensation, you don't need to major in finance to figure out whats better.</p>