Fred Alger 2022 and general questions?
Saw some posts on Alger, but otherwise difficult to find out more information on them. Can anyone provide info on what the structure looks like? Individual sector focus and everyone pitches ideas up to sector heads and then the PMs decide what gets into portfolios? Looks like they have the same few PMs running each strategy, so just trying to get a better sense of what it means to be working as a Research Associate for a sector at Alger.
Given their mandate and investment style, should stock pitches in an interview be more similar to pod style investment pitches or more traditional LO pitches with a growth focus? (focus on ST + variant perception vs. focus on durability of growth in outer years, with a hint of variant perception?)
Any additional info on comp, culture, progression, exit opps, and reputation would be appreciated as well (the obvious questions we always ask...). Sounds like there has been some negative feedback on this forum, but trying to figure out if that is from a limited sample size or broadly accurate.
Also interested. I'm guessing that working here would make it hard to move to a shop with a longer time horizon / less growthy orientation. ie alger -> dodge and cox not likely.
Bump
Sector focus. You work with the sector heads to pitch to PMs, PMs decide what goes into the portfolio.
No MBA needed to advance within the firm. Not sure if you need to explicitly pitch a pod-style idea, but growth idea for sure.
Exits: Google and LinkedIn are your friends, no? Reputation: People know Alger. My sources told me culture is great (contrary to a prior WSO post on DC the founder), but I never worked there.
Awesome thanks - yes saw a handful of exits to multi-manager pods on linkedin, but was curious if anyone exits elsewhere... I guess linkedin would actually have all/ if not better information so not sure why I am asking then lol. I think I was mostly worried about 1) culture and 2) pigeonholed into a trading investment style. Have upcoming interviews so just doing my diligence! Thanks again
This may be a stupid question, but can you differentiate between a sector research analyst role vs an investment analyst? Is the former just identifying market conditions and trends while the other actually engages in fundamental analysis?
Hmm, not sure what you are asking so I will say it's probably not a stupid question (trust me, I frequent these forums, I know what stupid questions are)
Sector heads are just really really experienced specialist who knows a sector very well. An investment analyst (assuming I understood your question) is new entrant to the profession who can be a generalist (looking across any sector at a time) or a specialist in training (assigned many companies in a specific sector / industry).
Does this help?
Interviewed there for a post-MBA role and have heard culture is rough from a few people. Doesn't surprise me based on the people I met. CEO seems to have a pretty big head.
Putting that aside, good rep and I've heard comp is solid. Know it's growthy so not sure how they've held up this year.
When you hear comp is solid, what kind of range does that imply? Thanks
I’m not positive but would guess high 2s coming out of b school
Don't know exact numbers but from what I understand it's similar to other user's guess, 250-300k range post-MBA.
Do not work for Alger (TLDR the business is broken) - avoid this place at all costs if you can, proceed only if you're absolutely desperate with no other options (FWIW, almost any other option is a better option). This is why:
Comp is terrible: Research Associates (RAs) will get paid $90K with a $5K sign on bonus and can expect $15K in first 6 months (assuming you join in July with the other RAs, bonuses paid out at end of December). This will go up to $105K base and ~$50K bonus (could be +/- $10K) the following year and continue to creep up after that. They'll tell you that you'll get a 'slow and steady increase over time' - and they're right! Painfully so.... and bear in mind Alger's definition of 'time' isn't what you'd expect - which leads me to....
Progression is incredibly slow: the 'golden child' of the firm took 7 years from joining as an RA to be granted even a small sleeve of one of the funds, and still answers almost entirely to the other PMs and is treated mostly like an analyst. What did he get for comp in his 'breakout 7th year' where he drove most of the performance of a $50bn [at the time, now closer to $30bn given recent performance] fund? $1mn.... okay that's not terrible but come on! At a fund that size you gotta reward your top talent/value adders better than that... Most of the 'senior analysts' (highest level for an analyst) are in their 40s and 50s, and most don't stand a chance of becoming a PM. The marketing brochures show that the average tenure of a senior analyst at Alger in the finance industry is 19 YEARS. Great! I don't know about everyone else but I didn't get into the industry to aim for being an analyst for the rest of my life taking home a well sub-$1m paycheck in my 50s (no disrespect to those who do but as a fresh starter in the industry you gotta aim high!)
Culture is absolutely terrible: can attest to other posts that churn at the analyst level is very high and that Dan Chung is an arrogant narcissist who throws temper tantrums directed at his analysts including his most junior 'barely out of college' analysts. Some of the other PMs are equally miserable to work with (but shoutout to the one or two who were friendly and supportive)
Investment process is broken: The funds are down bad (think somewhere between Nasdaq and Tiger) - and the newer strategies (like small cap) have been equally terrible. Investment process is reactionary and momentum driven, and the PMs often ignore their actually fairly talented senior analysts (which seemed to drive them to either apathy or frustration and resentment).
Exit ops are a crappy subset of BB IB: Although exit ops don't entirely suck and you can go to work in a pod somewhere (best op you're gonna get) - exit ops from any tier1/2 (or even 3) IB program are gonna be way way better. You can basically get anything you'd get from Alger and significantly more from an IB program - e.g., at Alger, you will not get offers from an activist fund, you won't get offers from top tier HFs other than the pod shops, and you won't get anything from growth/PE (granted you might not be looking for private stuff if you know you want to do public equities for the rest of your life aged 22... but, you get the point...) - you're basically heading for corporate (think business development at DraftKings etc), a niche, relatively unknown HF, a pod (best exit you can hope for), or a sleepy asset manager - that will cover ~95% of exits.
The politics are horrendous: Won't go into detail as wouldn't want to dox but the politics (as driven by the culture set by Mr. Chung) are nauseating - HR in particular only answers to Dan and will do their best to make your life unnecessarily miserable and difficult
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Holy crap that sounds frightening - you worked there I assume? I am an experienced analyst considering them as it seems a good stepping stone to HFs and working at larger firms, and comp was supposed to be good but this sounds awful...
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That sounds like a typical LO associate program out of undergrad tho...
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I made this post a few years ago under an alias account and I would like to provide some additional context
I was very upset when I made the post (evidently) and while the content/facts presented were accurate at the time of writing, the opinions were one of someone who was very upset in a specific situation
This is an apology to Alger and the community for a review which was very one-sided of the company. There are many positive reasons to work for Alger as a junior, including solid training in the fundamentals of asset management, solid exit opps to top tier buyside firms (Citadel, Balyasny, solid single managers etc), and a very supportive, kind, and knowledgeable set of senior analysts who will give you a substantial amount of their time and attention to train you
I hope this addendum gives a more balanced view of the company, which, despite its flaws, remains a solid training ground for aspiring junior analysts
went in pretty deep into the process with them before in the past, as well as my college being a target school of theirs which allowed me to interact with multiple alumni at the firm - from my experience, people there seemed really nice and smart, as well as mentorship being a big part of the firm's culture.
with all that being said, it would appear that a good amount of the higher-ups are still young, which means that upward mobility will likely stagnate at some point, as the young rainmakers are unlikely to step aside just to make room for the next generation, which is the case with any established organization these days (alger was founded in 1964; everyone on wso talks about how upward mobility in bb/eb ibd & mfpe & legacy asset managers (wellington, dodge & cox, t. rowe price, etc.) is not that great, so i would assume the same here).
but as a young analyst (or research associate in their organization), training and mentorship seems great, and given that the organization built a hedge fund practice, you will likely be given lots of responsibility and exposure, and their LI page shows some decent exits and laterals, and i would expect to leave the firm battle tested, battle ready, and grateful for my time there.
the interview process was extremely challenging (stock pitch deep dive, grilling with technicals, and unexpected brainteasers + rigorous behaviorals), but it did force me to think on my feet and outside the box, and set me up for success in future interview processes down the road.
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