BB ER vs small HF

I have offers from a BB ER and a ~2b AUM L/S HF. I think my long term goal is long term investing in public equities, but I don't know if that means AM or HF -- seems like the same investment style at the right shop, just differently sourced capital -- and ER->AM seems more plausible.

 

It's always better to get to the buy-side as soon as you can. $2bn is not a small shop either. 

Is L/S HF "long-term"? No, they have to care about quarters while still claim to be long-term, but who is truly "long-term long-term" (maybe Chuck Akre out in middle-of-no-where, Virginia)? If the people at the $2bn shop are good and treat you well, stick around for 2 years to learn how to pick stocks for real.

If the right long-term investing role in AM comes along that gives you relatively lower stress and stronger alignment, make a move then. 

 

I'm worried though that if things go south after 2-5 yrs I'd be unemployable. Wouldn't other firms prefer people who did IB for 2 yrs since they know they've got the basic background to work at their funds, whereas with me they might think I just know the particular way of doing things from my fund?

I guess in simpler terms what I'm asking is, how do firms look at identical resumes where the only difference is either 2 yrs of HF experience or 2 yrs of BB IB?

 
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There's a giant perception hurdle going from sell-side to buy-side. Once you are buy-side, you are buy-side.

2 years of buy-side experience should help your response rate even if you just apply through career portals or LinkedIn without networking directly with funds because funds know your opinion on the prior job has results in money being put to work. Versus on the sell-side, your opinion and work have gone into a sales pitch (investment banking) or a research report (sell-side research), which don't relate to participating in the market. 

For your specific situation, you will work at a small L/S, that's not super short-term but it's also not buy-and-hold, so if you want to go to pod shop or long only, your story is easy to tell. 

 

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