How does MM HF Recruiting work

Hi, freshman at Northwestern here interested in discretionary long/short equity at an MM HF.

What is the path to recruiting for these kinds of roles, and do they require a technical background or is my economics major fine? Additionally, what kinds of internships look best for these kinds of roles (I currently have a boutique banking internship for summer 2024 and am doing a remote internship at a small PE fund - wondering if these are applicable). 

Thanks for the help.

8 Comments
 
Most Helpful

HF forum officially fell off

Break into IB/ER and move into MMHF after a year or two of running your own paper "idea book/journal" and you're somewhat decent.

P72 has a pretty big grad process but its insanely competitive

I interned at one of the MMs a few years ago and no one cared about background/major/prior work ex. They hire a lot of people with non-finance/econ backgrounds since they can come up with unique ideas, which is the name of the game. Very different to standard PE/IB where you learn a process and apply it.

 
Funniest

You know I read your first reply and thought..."why would someone choose to be hostile to a stranger online and why would they make assumptions with full confidence when they don't know anything about me"

I really hoped your reasoning wasn't as crass as basing your assumptions off my title on an anonymous online forum...I really hoped it wasn't.

A few things; plz fix:

1) I never told OP to do IB/ER "first". I'm not a part of the crowd that tells people to do sell-side first (it would be hypocritical). OP asked what experiences people who break in have and what the recruiting style typically looks like, I just answered that given its how most of us end up in this business. I then mentioned P72's undergrad process since they have the most exhaustive pipeline that covers most regions, unlike other MMs. 

You just put words in my mouth with your quote.

2) Your assumption that no one's taking ER over MM is rash. There are a lot of MMs out there and you can intern at any if you know a PM. Someone interning at Verition might not be inclined to return if they need training.

3) Its an online forum and the title "equity research", loosely translates into the day-to-day work of what many l/s analysts do. Not everyone cares enough to give role selection 100% of their undivided attention. 

4) The funny thing is that there's an MM out there that doesn't run a formal internship pipeline but still has interns and has an undergraduate pipeline that requires you to do a placement in a sellside research role first...I wonder if that has anything to do with my title ;)

 

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