Does pedigree matter for HF?
I am from a semi target locally so i probably wont get top BB ER roles immediately (i want to take the ER route btw). Do you think once you are in ER for a few years it becomes easier to transition to better desks and also exit to HF or do they still give a lot of importance to the name of the school?
TL;DR: Does school name matter after a few years if i am aiming at ER/HF?
Btw i a in europe if it makes any difference
From experience - you will most likely get looks from PMs in your sector who are looking for ER exp. (Some PMs explicitly say they want ER folks). You just gotta be ready for the opp. Know how to model like a pro, know your names cold.
So once i am in ER school is not relevant anymore, what matters is ER performance and sector, correct?
Btw is there a way to change sector during your career or will you always stay at the one you started at?
You can change sectors but you will need a reason and explain why. Just be a good associate and you can move around teams / colleagues will know you are good. When it comes to moving to buyside it’s more about how long have you covered the sector/ how deep you are on names which is a function of how long you covered them. But you will get looks/inbound from MM shops
It truly depends on the fund / PM. I've seen job postings listing that you need to come from an ivy. Ive seen others where you had to come from a top ivy and do 2+2 before you can interview - the second 2 needs to be from an MF. Then there are others that just take hungry and hard working non targets. Its all over the place. Just focus on knowing your industry well and take it from there.
But would you say the majority of HF (and the biggest ones) care or not?
Btw i am in europe if it makes any difference
EU HF arent as prestige whores like american ones. Like if you look at AKO or Egerton you will see people from all sort of backgrounds. Sure TCI might be out of reach but that is just one HF
I have a couple of questions about on how i can fix the situation even for prestige centered HF:
1) do 4/5 years in ER solve the “non ivy degree” issue?
2) what about mba?
3) working at another HF instead? Like ER-> AKO -> TCI
MMHF it won’t matter. The bigger question is if you want to do MMHF without training. EU PMs are even more transactional than NA ones in my experience and it’s not uncommon to be working for an MLP pm running 1bn while they ping you random requests on BBG.
SMHF pedigree does matter, but less so than in the US. That being said the issue in London is that there’s so few quality SM seats open.
Why do you say without training? Isnt ER the most relevant training ground for HF?
Assuming long/short equity, no ER isn’t the most relevant training ground. The training programs are.
ER is incredibly hit or miss and very dependent on the analyst you’re working under in terms of how much HF/pod specific skills you build up. It’s similar, but it’s materially different to the point where most people feel a few months into a HF seat teaches them much more about stocks than their ER stint did.
that being said, on the sellside ER is the most relevant role for most pods, but some PMs will still prefer to hire out of banking or w/e.
Having hired Analysts at both top SM/MM platforms I can tell that the comment from the “Director in Private Credit” is a text book case of blind leading the blind.
No firm would be so unpolished to say ‘top ivy + MF only’. Like right… Dan Sundheim rejects the top Medtech Analyst who’ve had amazing calls for 3 yrs that generated him P&L because he went to Penn State instead of Penn.
A University degree + solid sell-side training are just basic hygiene factors to get a first look. The problem in Europe's isn't pedigree - its lack of genuine stock-picking talent. PMs solve for P&L generation potential, not relative deltas in university prestige. The most successful European MM PM is a Manchester grad who generated >$1bn of net P&L. Same guy state side went to Lehigh University.
Obsessing over your university degree positioning for TCI, who hire every 5-7 years, shows misplaced focus. They have ppl from University of Augsburg. I bet you can’t point that out on map. So if you don’t get a seat at TCI, it's not due to your school holding you back - it’ll be all you :)
Put yourself in a PMs shoes for a sec. You look at an Oxford PPE who shows you he went to a good school and can process information and do well on tests. Great… Love that for him. But do you now, in isolation, have conviction that he can make you money? You’d test that dude exactly the same way as the engineering grad from Politecnico Milano, and I bet my left nut you’ll get zero correlation between misguided WSO forum perceived pedigree and people who are actually good in their seats.
Good school is one thing and that’s great if you have it… But this remains one of the most meritocratic industries around. Performance cuts through everything. Get that paper and focus on developing real skills - credentials matter, until they don't.
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