Hi guys, I've kinda posted on this topic before but I keep getting conflicting advice and I'm interested in what I should do with my current scenario. About me: I'm a current sophomore economics and finance double major at a non/semi target (semi for some BB's) top 50 liberal arts university business school. Like most, I'm currently working my ass off networking to go IB out of undergrad and then HF long term - I was lucky enough to intern at a small ibank last summer after my freshman year and I'm on the prowl to do something similar next year or maybe intern at a hedge fund etc etc that's kinda irrelevant for my question SO
I actually was lucky enough to grab lunch w/ an ex-Tiger cub hedge fundie who retired a little over a year ago and pick his brain... He really stressed how the L/S HF space was truly shrinking right now and that something like comp sci or even just learning to code can be hugely beneficial in the long term... Furthermore my ex-boss (IB guy, former merg. arb. desk at Drexel) at my previous internship suggested I double major in finance and statistics/applied math and then minor in econ and/or accounting. Now, personally I see minors as being practically useless when it comes to getting a job and they merely pose as interests. But hey, you guys are the ones with the advice and not me.
Now, another route posed by said hedge fundie was to go get my MFE (Masters in Financial Engineering). Thing is, I know little to nothing about these programs and what I need to get into the better ones. Am I shit out of luck if I double major in economics and finance if I then were looking to go to a top MFE program? Should I just stick with my current majors and only focus on IB before worrying about long term HF stuff? Obviously I know I'm probably way ahead of myself, but again the overlying goal here is primarily to go into HF (not so picky on the strategy, beggars can't be choosers) and obviously with the L/S and active manager space shrinking it seems increasingly important to study something like a hard math or computer science; I'm just trying to figure out whether or not it's important to do that as early as undergrad. To the greater question - is this shift in HF strategies to quant based algo platforms merely cyclical? Is it rooted simply from a recovering market (since the late 2000's) and relatively low volatility in equities?
Basically, across 4 studies, which 2 do I major in and which 2 do I minor in/throw away? Finance, economics, computer science/statistics, accounting. Short term IB (or even ER) and long term HF (ideally L/S but shrinking). Do I go get MFE or MS in Mathematical Finance/Quant stuff and keep my majors currently? Should I drop all of this and become an artist? Any help is greatly appreciated!
