career advise - Currently working in operations

hi

i am currently working in the operations of a hedge fund for last 6 months and recently got an offer for an analyst(fresher) pos in a consulting firm.

however enticing and tempting a chance of 'real business learning and work' at the consulting firm, many seniors are advicing me to stick on to hedge fund as its a great industry to be associated with. my problems are

  1. i dont really have any interest in operations and would like to break into investment side
  2. if i change job now it ll be my third company in 1 year and this i have been advised doesn't go well with recruiters/b-schools as i also plan to do my masters soon.( but not sure how soon)
  3. my real interest and passion lies in understanding business in detail and being in sync with happenings and able to dissect info and knowledge to put it to use.

  4. plus please advise if my experience. in operations in a hedge fund will help me anyway in breaking into the 'real work'???? any examples of what i need to do now to hone my skill set.

 
Best Response
neil joseph:
1. i dont really have any interest in operations and would like to break into investment side.

There's someone here on WSO who's been in the hedge fund industry for 11+ years. If I remember correctly, he started in admin or ops, and eventually made it to the investing side. Maybe you can search around these forums a bit, and see if you can find him (his name slips my mind right now).

neil joseph:
3. my real interest and passion lies in understanding business in detail and being in sync with happenings and able to dissect info and knowledge to put it to use.

Well, if that's the case, it seems like finance is not a good industry for you. Unless you meant you want to be able to break down companies and then decide whether or not they're a good investment. But, the way I interpreted this was more that you're interested in understanding the day-to-day business details, in which case finance might not be the best option for you and maybe you should consider consulting. So, which way should I interpret point 3?

 
<span class=keyword_link><a href=/resources/skills/economics>econ</a></span>:
neil joseph:
1. i dont really have any interest in operations and would like to break into investment side.

There's someone here on WSO who's been in the hedge fund industry for 11+ years. If I remember correctly, he started in admin or ops, and eventually made it to the investing side. Maybe you can search around these forums a bit, and see if you can find him (his name slips my mind right now).

neil joseph:
3. my real interest and passion lies in understanding business in detail and being in sync with happenings and able to dissect info and knowledge to put it to use.

Well, if that's the case, it seems like finance is not a good industry for you. Unless you meant you want to be able to break down companies and then decide whether or not they're a good investment. But, the way I interpreted this was more that you're interested in understanding the day-to-day business details, in which case finance might not be the best option for you and maybe you should consider consulting. So, which way should I interpret point 3?

the person you are referring to is Bondarb, probably the best poster on this site. its definitely worth going back to read many of his posts.

 

If you are planning on going to get some sort of masters within 2 years I would say stay. Switching around so much def. raises questions. Also, it all depends on which fund you work for / layout of the office, etc - but if you are so interested in getting to know the "investment" side why don't you do so?

Walk down the hall and get to know the guys doing research. Talk to your boss and let him know. Come up with some investment ideas / thoughts about a company or industry and spark up a conversation with someone.

Keep learning / expanding your knowledge of the "investment side". You could teach yourself all kinds of things and learn from interacting with others in the HF and in a couple of years apply for another job and show all that knowledge and say "Well, sure I technically worked in operations, but my true interest has always been in the investment side and as such I frequently interacted with and a lot of times stayed late to learn more about this side of the business. That is what was really great about XX firm - they really encouraged you to learn as much as you could about every aspect, and the aspect I was interested in was the investments side - and by the end of my time at XX firm I felt like I learned enough through independent research / interacting with other in the HF to run with the best of those in the investment decision making side."

Any variation of that little pitch + the ACTUAL knowledge / skills that come along with doing all those things and your golden. You have to remember that even if your HF doesn't allow you to interact / operations is on another floor, etc. any firm you subsequently interview with this doesn't know that and if you have the knowledge / skills that it takes to make it in the investment side you should be good

 

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