From BB M&A to AQR
Curious to hear if anyone from IBD BB made it to AQR for any front-office/investing role? If so, how?
Is the London office big?
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Knew an alum who started out BB IBD and got to AQR but obviously it wasnt a linear path (not saying it's a bad thing). Joined a 'quantumental' HF after analyst stint, then a pod shop, then AQR in a momentum team. Didn't do a STEM degree (did economics) but was a very quantitative person I'd say. Had the CFA (if that helps at all)
Frankly i don't know why he did banking but if I had to wager it's because of the number of seats in banking, plus banking exits well to HF these days anyway
How did he join a quant HF while being in M&A?
I’ve also a decent econometrics background from my bachelors.
Not pure quant, but 'quantamental' (quant plus fundamental strategy, it's becoming bigger of a thing these days). Maybe he was in a merger arb group?
Yea, econometrics is always useful, from the AQR podcasts I hear and Cliff newsletters I read it seems heavy on factor investing, isolating factors and retrieving alpha, model validating, all that good stuff, that doesn't seem too alien for my econometrics
Yup, agree. But after +1 year of IBD, I’ve lost touch with any econ model I might have studied before. And no HH has ever contacted me for a quant role.
What are you guys doing to try to move to these places? Maybe moving to macro? Would it be a bad play to try to move to S&T from M&A in my own bank?
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