HF Career Advice

If my goal is to maximize for money in years 5-10 of my hedge fund career, is it better to go directly into a pod shop or start at an SM (particularly very strong / lean SMs like Anomaly / Palestra / Alua) and transition over later to a Citadel after 2-4 years after I’ve bridged the gap in skills from private to public investing.

I’m assuming you have a higher ceiling in the pods, but at a place like Anomaly / Palestra / Alua, can I make comparable money in years 5-10 with similar performance (not same % but adjusted for what is considered good / great at both types of funds) or will it always be higher at a Citadel? 

For context, my background is 2+2 (Banking and PE)

9 Comments
 

Start at pods if you want to make $$ at pods

would worry about being good more than where you first work though 

 

The answer truly is no, if you’re maximizing for comp start at a pod. Not going to beat around bush but I thought exactly what you proposed 5-10 years ago and regret it a lot.

Also…Alua anomaly palestra? What? Alua is a family office that will never scale into a large fund, anomaly and Palestra are okay.

Assuming same performance, you will make more at a pod year 3 and onwards than you will at a SM. I’ve ran every permutation haha. Start at Citadel, grow up in the model, find a great team, and you’ll have an amazing career

 

No offer from Citadel - I have avoided pursuing Citadel because I heard bad things about the two PMs who reached out. Vs. a fund similar to the ones I mentioned in the post (Anomaly, Palestra, Alua), but not in an industry seat I necessarily prefer. I think that ending up in a pod shop is the goal, and there are elements of going to an SM as a starting point that feel comfortable to me (high entry comp, more professional development, more similar to PE DD as I learn about public markets). It feels better on a risk-adjusted basis vs. diving into a Citadel where I may suck and not build the skills quickly enough in that environment. 

 

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