Future of Econ/Finance Grads in the Hedge Fund Industry?
There was a similar post from 10 years ago but wanted to get some up-to-date responses
Since hedge funds and a lot of trading jobs today are dominated by quants, do people with an econ/finance degree without or with little programming knowledge have any potential in the HF industry?
A lot of long/short equity funds are also hiring quants from what I have been reading. Are the days when an Einhorn or an Ackman could make it big over?
I really need to make a decision whether I move in the PE or HF path. Looks like PE seems more welcoming. xD
Bump
PM at a quant fund here. Note that I don't know anything at all about the fundamental side, which may actually be what you're asking about.
From my perspective, what you major in (and whether you go to grad school) doesn't matter a lot. All that matters is hard and soft skills -- and whether you interview well and have enough credible stuff on your resume to get an interview to begin with, I guess. If you're an econ major and barely know how to use Stata, you will never get a job as a quant. On the other hand if you are an English major but are really strong in Python and statistics, some places might pass on you, but you'll have a good shot with anyone who reads more than the first three lines of your resume.
Two additional notes. First, it seems that some asset management shops (as opposed to HFs) run very thick with econ and finance people. The cynical view is that this type of business is primarily about marketing over investment performance, and it works with big dumb plan sponsors to say 'we have 25 finance PhDs and two Yale economics professors on staff,' whether or not this is a smart way to build a quant process.
Second, maybe I have been unlucky, but a surprising number of the econ/finance people I've worked with have been problem colleagues. I attribute that to the fact that they often roll in thinking they know something about markets when they really don't (other than general equilibrium theory, stochastic discount kernels, and a lot of other stuff that has zero practical value). My sense is also that many econ and finance departments encourage toxic, arrogant behavior, which doesn't usually translate well to a professional environment.
As a bottom line, I think of studying economics or finance as neutral to negative for getting hired to a quant shop. For that, it's better to go for something like CS, applied math, math, stats, or anything in engineering or the hard sciences with a significant programming and problem solving component.
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