Do you have a mentor? How did you find them?

For background I am finishing my first year of university and looking to break into the HF industry but not really sure what the best route is, so trying to find someone willing to mentor me.

I was wondering what your experiences were with mentorship, how you developed the relationship, and what impact it has had on your career,

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Join student clubs, attend company information sessions, or do any number of things that surrounds yourself with likeminded, but ideally senior students at your university.

Also, try and have a bunch of coffee chats with people in the industry. People who are open to mentorship often make it evident, but it may take a dozen or so coffee chats to find that person.

And last bit of advice, most hedge funds and pretty much all single-manager hedge funds recruit from IB and PE programs. This means that you should probably focus on IB/PE recruiting to maximize your chances of working at a solid hedge fund.
 

 

+1 sb'd. Thanks for the advice.
In regards to starting off in IB/PE, I've spoken to people from 2 HF firms and they both told me they don't like hiring people from banks (IB or ER) as they aren't original thinkers and they pick up bad habits from that environment, do you think these firms are anomalous or just represent a different viewpoint in HF circles?

 

to be clear- they are both very small firms and don't have a set intern/analyst programme. I can only find data on previous hires for one of them (the other is quite private) and it seems to be all from other investment management/hf firms

 

Sounds like an exception to the norm. There are a few hedge funds and asset managers that hire out of undergrad (ex: P72, Citadel, Marshall Wace), but these are a small minority of all hedge funds that are looking to hire relatively junior people. The biggest value-add of IB is the very structured training programs that PE/HF does not have.

Pretty much all of the "tiger cubs" and other single managers are hiring from IB or IB then PE.  

 

Make friends with your seniors. Get to know them on a personal level and take a genuine interest in them/ their work. Not everyone will want to work with you or want to teach you but hang on for the people that do. Read the book “how to win friends and influence people” it will give you tools for how to achieve this.

Having a mentor could be the difference between success and failure in this business.

 

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