MF PC to HF, Special Sits, Something Else

Why do you feel that senior DL isn't "real" investing? Is it because of the risk aversion within DL as a strategy, or because you're investing in the most senior of debt in the cap stack?

It’s a don’t make mistakes type of strategy that’s pretty commoditized. Sitting through IC and talking about how good an extra 25-50bps of additional coupon is incredible risk makes one want to blow their brains out. 

Emphasizing this point as it can't be appreciated enough. I've helped out my fair share of people looking to make the switch to special sits / credit HF investing from various backgrounds (IB, PE, PC, etc.); the single biggest limiting factor was not having a strong enough grasp on detailed credit fundamentals and restructuring technicals, and I completely agree that fluency with these concepts are fair game for professionals looking to lateral because these are things someone is able to learn on their own whether its from observing their own deals or working independently. You don't need to work at a credit hedge fund to figure out how to forecast cash flows and tie into leverage / credit metric evolution, covenant compliance, asset valuation and basic waterfall analyses. Nor do you need to actually sit through a real in court restructuring to have an understanding of basic procedures, transaction structures, and pro forma work. I wouldn't really expect for someone looking to make a pivot to know about things like steerco / engaged creditor processes, transaction process nuance, and for non-public market roles I would be sympathetic to lacking in understanding relative value / security pricing stuff. This is all to say that for those interested in pivoting to these types of positions there is a lot of leg work that can be covered on your own that will help you stand out or not fall behind the PJT RX guy.