This is as much out of (morbid) curiosity as anything else to be honest. As someone who skipped bschool and didn't go to one of the 'top' targets I wonder: how much does school network matter for experienced professionals, especially in hedge funds. I'm thinking both undergrad and MBA.
Some of what I've seen:
+Obviously, OCR is everything when you're actually in school (undergrad and grad).
School pedigree definitely seemed to matter for buyside recruiting post banking, but this seemed to be more about resume strength than 'networking' per se.
Friends that went to Wharton/ Columbia/ Sanford bschool having trouble breaking into HFs or getting placements after their funds closed down/ they were fired. My expectation was that it would be a relative cakewalk to leverage the network to find another good gig. Interestingly, HBS friends seem to have much less trouble here, but still see a lot of HBS grads at HF jobs I consider 'not that special' (though I also see plenty with truly incredible opportunities)
People from 'random' non-targets getting fairly insane opportunities (e.g. top HF out of undergrad) via networking
I guess I'll segment this question in two. For people that are 2+ years out of school (ugrad or MBA) and have needed to find new opps in the HF industry, has the school network been a big help?
For people recruiting/ working at HFs, do you give minor (or strong) preference to people from your alma-mater or are you all about finding 'merit' regardless of where it comes from?
