Actuary Investment Consulting --> Hedge Fund Portfolio Manager- Is it possible?

Hi all,

I have an offer for an entry level actuary job in Investment consulting. However, my end goal is to work at a hedge fund as a senior analyst/ portfolio manager. With this actuary role, I can become a fellow and also pass my CFA exams alongside.

Thus I was wondering if this non-traditional route into hedge funds is possible/ would it be better for me to take the more standard route from a large Asset Management firm into a hedge fund?

If my entry level actuary job is in insurance instead of investment consulting, does this path become significantly harder then?

Thank you for any advice given!

 

I was an actuary for a while in pensions. I would say no. Investment consulting will not teach you the skills you need to work at a hedge fund - they might teach you about pension investing, asset allocation and you could do some manager research coverage, but you definitely are not going to be learning the skills you would need to be an analyst... traditional route has better odds. Have nothing to say about the insurance side... Also getting your actuarial credentials are a HUGE time sink that you should be spending on learning to invest, networking, etc. An FSA next to your name will not make you more competitive in hedge funds.

 
Best Response

saxxyman had a lot of good things to say above.

Actuarial investing is liability-driven, it's not about generating alpha, rather about generating sufficient cash flows to match future liability (pension or insurance contracts).

Actuarial investment consulting will not expose you to skills needed for stock picking using fundamental analysis. If you really want to break into hedge fund, learn financial statement analysis, read 10Ks, and work in a capability where you have opportunity to work with corporate / financial institution financial statements on a daily basis, at least that's a start.

Traditional route (such as investment banking) is not easy to get in, but that shouldn't stop you from building a track record through diligence. This is also a good opportunity for you to see what it takes to be a stock pitcher, you might not even enjoy reading dense public filings everyday. Making big money takes hard work. The market is ready to prove you wrong any day.

 

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