Jumping from Asset Management to Hedge Fund

I am a equity analyst in the AM division of an EB. I spend most of my time researching and recommending equities for our long/short & long only products. I've enjoyed the people and work, but I'm unsure about upward mobility/comp. Should/How do I get into the radar of more traditional hf headhunters?

 

Bwater isn't a quant shop..

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Post MBA, how common is large AM shop ---> HF?

If I eventually want to move to the buy-side (AM/HF/mutual fund) and (hypothetically - this is all 3-4 years away to be honest) don't get a buy-side job out of school, would it be better to return to IB or move to something like ER?

I'm not one of the WSO readers who thinks it's beaten track or die, GS or bust etc, but am curious as to how I should position myself in different scenarios after IB if I want to go to the buy-side. The reason I ask specifically is because I work in IB outside the US and for a number of reasons, may need to go straight from IB ---> US MBA program and may not have the chance to do buyside in between (in any country).

 

If I remember from some other threads, you're based in Australia as am I.

I can't comment on the shift from AM to HF specifically, but just locally I rarely come across people with IB backgrounds in AM, which is really the majority of the industry compared to HFs (of which there are few). That's not to say you can't make the transition but an ER background is the more common step.

Post-MBA...and there are others more qualified to answer...my understanding is that buy-side recruitment is largely what you make of it as these roles generally aren't advertised outside of the larger shops. There are a couple of recent threads talking about this.

 
Best Response

I can only speak for my own firm, a large AM shop that sources people almost exclusively from a few MBA programs... almost no one leaves from here for HFs. I'm not sure whether that's because the door is not open, or if ppl are just generally happy with comp/lifestyle/stability of being at a big long-only. Once in a while someone will leave for another long-only (e.g. if an experienced analyst has a chance to be a PM somewhere), and there are ppl who will leave for VC. But otherwise I haven't seen a lot of jumps to HFs. I think it's tough to justify taking that risk unless the economics are really substantially better. Part of this i'm sure is cultural though - we screen for likely hedge fund defectors and those guys generally aren't getting offers...

My 2 cents is it would certainly be possible to jump after 2-4 years, but you're likely going to need to work with a headhunter. Questionable risk/reward so a lot of people just stay.

 

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