How Badly Did I Screw Myself Over?
I am going to be as vague as I can for anonymity, but I'm hoping to get some advice on my situation.
I am a rising senior at a target business school and planned to work at the hedge fund I am interning at after graduating, however they are now less certain there will be a spot for me when I graduate because they will be hiring someone else before then.
The main problem is that this HF is quite small (~200mm AUM) so it has zero name recognition. I knew this when I accepted the internship offer, but my thinking was that all I care about is doing long/short equity, so I don't care about prestige, pay, etc. but now that they may not have a spot for me, the name/prestige might be all that mattered.
I interned at this firm 3 times, and did another internship at a mutual fund ($5B+) that does some long/short equity, but that fund also has little name recognition. Also, my GPA is a 3.7, so it's too low to help at all.
(Please be honest) how screwed am I? My initial game plan right now is to keep working hard at my internship (they said they would hire me if they do have a spot when I graduate) and in the meantime reach out to as many funds as I can to see if there are openings. The HF I am interning at invests in software with a somewhat similar time horizon to a MM, so my hope is that one of the new multi-managers that launched in the past year will have a spot (since Point72, etc, hire almost exclusively from their intern program).
Thank you for your time.
TLDR: interned at small hedge fund that may not have a seat for me when I graduate.
I don't think you're that screwed. I had a similar situation (10+ yrs ago) where I interned at an MM pod for over a year and then they didn't have budget for a full time hire. I ended up working at another long-short during the summer after graduating that also didn't have a FT role for me and recruited a ton while I was working. It helped to be in NYC for networking and interviews and I ultimately landed in ER by the end of the summer.
How set are you to going straight into HF? I'd suggest you look for ER roles since they're more opportunistic, you have sector "expertise", and give you a path to jumping into a L/S HF afterwards.
Recruit banking or consulting? Obviously the situation sucks but if the goal now is to get a job then I'd recruit everywhere.
You’re not screwed at all. Many of us on buyside had no buyside experience in college. Relax, touch some grass. You will be fine. Starting off in a buyside seat out of college I think is 1) unlikely and 2) not recommended as I think you’re better off starting off in some structured program at a big bank
You're fine dude. If you interened there 3 times and they really like you, they'll probably write one hell of a recommendation to any fund you can get interviews with. If they're not confident there's going to be a spot for you you could probably ask the founder/CIO/whoever you worked with to help you get interviews with his contacts/references to other funds since they'll have a stronger grasp on your work ethic than any 1-summer internship could hope for. 3.7 is a great GPA, you're in a good spot and I don't think you have anything to worry about. You've got over a year at a target school to recruit aggressively. Buckle down for sure, but I highly doubt you're in remotely a bad position and are probably better prepared compared to 90%+ of your peers.
Bro I had a 3.1 at a semi target and no prior experience you’re chilling
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