3x SWE FAANG Intern -> Fundamental Analyst @ HF
Im a junior at a T20, I have done 3 internships at top big tech companies, currently deciding my summer 2027 internship between a quant firm and big tech, both are “front office swe” roles on great teams. (I did co-op which is why I have so many internships).
I am very interested in being a fundamental analyst and think I would be much better at it/have a more genuine passion compared to swe. Would I be able to recruit for full time FA at a top tier HF? I can likely get the swe roles at these places but I would much rather be a FA. My gpa is a ~3.1-3.3 so that will probably hold me back but idk how much (I still got interviews for all the top quant firms this cycle for swe/qd intern). I’m mainly concerned if I will even get interviews for FA :/
I was planning on spending a couple months evaluating companies/stocks, I have no experience/background in this but im fairly smart and have passion/intuition so I think I can figure that part out.
Straight into fundamental HF with no direct internship experience might be hard out of college. You can try applying to those undergraduate academy/bridge programs that the p72, Millenium, citadel do etc. They are competitive. Smaller firms rarely hire out of undergrad. Banking or equity research might be a more realistic way in. GPA might be somewhat of gate.
Be very confident you know that is what you want to pivot into. It sounds like you know that you don’t want to do SWE or quant. Understand that your first few years might entail more hours, stress, and lower pay relative to those roles on average. I’m assuming you are passionate about public markets and the job and the potential right tail upside. Just think about it carefully. No shame in being a lower risk, lower upside role like a quant dev somewhere and consistently clipping several hundred k a year. Know a friend who did this for a decade and just FIRE.
i really appreciate the response, I will look into ER/IB and the new grad programs you mentioned
I think swe and quant are cool but quant especially is very disconnected from the real world, swe is interesting but i’m significantly more interested in the fluid/holistic act of figuring out if a company is miss-priced
im expecting to make 300-500k out of undergrad as a dev, i’m ok with a haircut to comp to be in L/S and FA at a reputable place
Stay in tech. It’s better.
It’s a fallback atm for me
Do you even know what the job would be, or are you just bored?
ya have a 80% idea, thing i lack is mainly the finance jazz/modeling, I read through part of a 10 K last night and picked up on some finance/ecom stuff i think il probably focus on tech sector, specifically infrastructure
i got interested partially through martin shkreli
You really don't get what public markets mean do you..."I have no experience/background in this but im fairly smart and have passion/intuition so I think I can figure that part out" -- 90% of people in this profession have all of this, that is the absolute bare minimum. Yet only ~20% of this pool of highly talented, intelligent, and passionate analysts are able to consistently outperform their sectors / bench
Sounds like you're just another tech bro who thinks transitioning to public markets will be a 'oh yeah I'll spend a few years and have it figured out'....huge role of the dice, what is this conviction based on w/ 0 experience investing?
Chances of getting a public markets seat with your background these days are also virtually nil. Esp. with your GPA, these top seats out of UG (which are very sparse to begin with) are demanding 3.7+ GPAs. HOWEVER, where you could rake in dough if you're smart is on the quant side (vs. fundamental) if you're really as intelligent / capable a coder as you say you are
lol never said i was that smart just said my background both pros and cons and passion for the industry and asked if I could get an interview
I already plan to grind out the tech sector (already have domain knowledge) and learn about how the companies operate and financial modeling that would be useful. My strongest factor is probably that I look for the truth and am constantly thinking about edge cases.
“90% of finance people have this” lol obviously it’s the most braindead shit ever, the actual hard part is having creative thoughts. Pretty sure everyone in competitive industries knows the “fundamentals” can be learned in weeks/a month and the actual attribution of those comes down to the person.
Join an alt data team is your best stepping stone. gpa wont mean shit if u nail what matters
thanks i was thinking about doing this lol, alt data is sick
no youre a cuck to the analyst teams. you sit on the cuck chair and watch from afar with your ETL workflows, regressions and dashboard. nothing more should drive your excitement than watching your analysts get remunerated.
Get up to speed with the ecosystem (esp transaction data. clickstream, app and geolocation after maybe. niche sector specific panels in healthcare, energy or industrials is optional). Reach out to a vendor to learn more about their data, and generally get comfortable talking to vendors (Yipit, Consumer Edge, M Science should be your first call). Then shortly after reach out to heads of data/ sector data heads at the fundamental funds/ multi mgrs, and try to get in person meetings. Do the above over next 2-3 months and you should land a good offer.
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