Hey everybody. I am looking at pursuing a career in the hedge fund industry after a few years in IB but I am not sure what kind of fund I should look into. I had multiple calls with some people in the industry and they all told me to pick a strategy to narrow down your search for a spot. So my question is, how did you know you want the strategy that you are currently at? Is it because you understand it the most? Fits the most with your personality? Or did you simply not care and just landed the role? Any insights would be great.
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kmasg, way too quiet in here. What about these resources:
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I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.
The truth is, most people will be happy in almost any strategy, but they will land in one or the other mainly based on their prior experience, which is often driven by randomness.
The IB analyst that was assigned to the restructuring group at his bank is more likely to end up doing distressed debt on the buyside. The guy that did 2+2 with PE experience probably has a better shot at deep-dive analysis SMs. And the sell-side ER analyst focused on biotech is a great fit to work at a MM covering that same sector. These are not the only paths, but are more common than others. Many things in your career are not driven by choices you make. Maybe you're a generalist L/S analyst, one day your boss asks you to look into a merger arb situation, and as you learn about the subject you're on your way to becoming a merger arb expert.
Long-story short, don't sweat it if none of the options are immediately "the one" for you. You will probably figure that out over the years. But it is true that it's hard for a recruiter to just take a kid that "wants to work at a HF".. it is pretty vague and might make it harder to market you, tjough some HFs are looking for kids with little/no pro investing experience so they don't bring any style biases and can be trained.
If you're really undecided and the recruiter is pressing you, I'd guess most people can claim they're looking for fundamental L/S equity.. anyone can pitch a stock thesis and kinda speak about what Buffett is about and so on.
I hope that helps.
That actually helped a lot. I really appreciate it.
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