Here is a little convo I had earlier with a buddy of mine about LT plans and tertiary education. Anyone in the upper levels of HF or IB care to share their opinion. I would appreciate it.
Me: My LT plans have shifted as of late. I plan on getting all my certifications here, getting a MSF then lateralling into HF research.
Bud: If you want to go HF you have to go Quant
Me: I want tertiary education but I am skeptical of taking more than a year off of making money, although being a full time student and searching for a job would be stressful. (1 YR MSF Program)
Bud: If you go quant/MFE you can go straight to buy side/HF/trading. MSF is IB and CF with some buy side analyst placements. But if you want to go big time institutional Asset Management they only take MBA. (?)
Bud: The fact is that non-quant equity analysis is a commodity (Agree). Thus it is difficult to distinguish yourself unless you are a rockstar stock picker or coming out of a top tier program like H/S/W. (Not to go into too much detail but there is a very good chance Bud here is going to get into MIT Sloan)
Me: I agree, don't have time to really start in on the GMAT yet much less the quant section, I would like to start a side business as well then apply after a year or two when I am more adjusted.
Bud: A lot of big funds only recruit from H/S/W I have even seen job postings that say don't even apply if you are not HSW.
So any thoughts on what Bud is saying? I am sure there are exceptions but is he generally on point or just "Type A as fuck living in a constant state of constructive paranoia".
I would like to have a better plan going forward than I had coming out of undergrad. Any feedback or successful plans are of course appreciated.
What's your current status - working, UG, etc? Will help give me a better grip on your potential next steps.
I would agree 1 yr grad prgms can be pretty tough for recruiting, my friend did LBS MiF and he said the MBA's get more flex/opportunities because they can intern over the summer. It also depends if you want to be more quant focused or more fundamentals based.
I was able to swing interviews with a few Och Ziff/TPG type funds and I went to a state school UG and a non M7 (tho not for MBA) but also have a few yrs restructuring banking experience prior and interned with a hedge fund for a summer. Not sure how other funds work but I'm pretty sure Baupost will only hire you if you are Rhodes type intelligence/prestige.
That said I think there are plenty of great opportunities in the HF world even if you aren't from HBS/Wharton. If you build the right experiences/story and show a genuine passion for investing and you're a genuinely good and interesting person, you can do it.
I graduated from a top 20 ranked B School program with a 3.7 and I am now working in capital markets equity research as an analyst.
Cool, sorry I have some more questions - would you be looking for equity long/short? Are you in a particular industry? Are you based in NYC or elsewhere?
If you can lateral in that is the easiest way to break in to HF in my opinion esp if your group has a track record of getting recruited. If not you might have to do some extra work to reach out to headhunters etc. but it is still possible I think.
PS taking the gmat isn't as tough or as big a time investment as many think - if you allot 2-3 focused hours a day for a month that should be plenty of prep.
I just applied to both mba and mfin programs, which I understand is not usual. But i have interests in both trading and investment research. My background is math/econ at a top U.S. college, 4 years exotic derivatives trading at a BB. For mba I applied to hbs, wharton, booth, columbia, and for mfin i applied to princeton, nyu, mit, lse, and lbs. Just starting to get interviews, so we'll see what happens with the final outcome.
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