Diversity has become a key metric in recruiting in most areas of finance - IB, PE, LO, etc. Ie. firms have diversity targets, there are clear preferences in various ways for recruiting "diverse" candidates over non diverse ones.
Has this or is this becoming the case in MM HF recruiting - are there preferences for eg. to hire female analysts over male ones - or not? I would expect this to be seen more at the analyst level than PM if it is the case.
Thanks
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I’m sure the platforms would; we are all f*cked
I’m sure there are preferences, all else being equal. But I don’t think most care - or at least it’s an invite a bunch of diverse people to the office for our 2-hour insight day and put pictures of them on the website but not hire any of them type of care.
Given that returns are all these places really care about (and some pay for analysts through investor pass through) hiring with a diversify quota as banks do is not as easy to justify.
Point72 academy is majority asian. That should tell you its a meritocracy
The lack of diversity in hedge funds is not because of meritocracy, it's just interest in general. The smartest diverse candidates are focused on law, science and medicine, not finance. I can count with only one hand the number of black HF pm's and managers ($1Bn>) in the industry. The very small percentage of diverse candidates that choose to pursue a career in high finance either do the IB>>PE route or choose to be career bankers. Also the HF industry specifically MM is so niche that the average determined college student (especially diverse) know nothing about it. That's why these programs are great initiatives to bring more awareness to the industry.
Which career paths emphasize diversity the most? Med schools, law schools, and academia. It's not a coincidence. The simple fact is that hedge funds, especially MM, are the epitome of meritocracy. You can’t hide your returns behind brand name or the color of your skin. If I was black, it would make no sense for me to join a MM HF as academia, law/med, even banking/PE are much safer risk-adjusted bets with their diversity initatives. For Asians though, joining a meritocratic HF would be a breath of fresh air because finally their performance isnt judged within the context of their skin color. That is the beauty of this industry.
I think you are missing the point. Diversity initiatives (when done well) are meant to attract top talent, not fill seats with less qualified candidates. I won’t go into all the existing (and past) issues with recruiting, but I find it interesting that when people see industries that promote diversity and then have more diverse people that the usual jump is to some unfairness (unqualified people getting roles over qualified people) vs that these industries have made changes that actually attract MORE top talent (across race/gender/etc and so you are actually seeing the best of the best, it was just that certain groups never even applied to these firms before)
I understand that many programs aren’t implemented well, and I do believe some firms do the bare minimum (do diversity in a “lazy” way), but the idea that the smartest people (and “best” people, both as individuals and as a part of team) should all look one way is concerning. Good programs are the ones that put in the effort to attract the best and brightest to their firm/industry. This takes time (as you also need the internal programs and culture to have these people stay), but I firmly believe that the best and brightest aren’t all one race/gender/etc.
Lies!!!
Yes, at least at the UG level. Citadel came to my campus but only wanted to interview girls from the investment club.
Get used to it lol
Thank you everyone for all your responses.
I was more trying to understand simply whether or not diversity hiring goes on, and to what extent it does, in MMs, without a big debate on whether it is right or wrong. If anyone has any further insights here, it would be much appreciated.
Buyside diversity is a bit more self-selected. For example, the person mentioned Citadel may have gone to a campus only interviewed females very likely the past analyst from that school was a female so she wants to hire females. Same goes for non-targets, they want to give another non-target a chance and so on.
For sure the firms want to make sure they have diversity of thought but it sort of happens naturally.
Original commenter here - this is false. Citadel hadn't ever previously taken a girl from the school, but had taken guys.
haven't seen much of that. on the investment teams there is still very much a meritocracy in place.
Work at one of the large MM, and there isn’t a single diverse candidate on my floor. Few Asian women but that’s it
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