I am in a dilemma..help please!!

A brief introduction first :

I am doing my Bachelors + Masters in Chemical Engineering from IIT ( a reputed college in India).I have cleared my CFA L-1 exam and will mostly liking be taking my L-2 exam in June 2011( I would have finished my masters by then). I want to break into the field of finance and have researched various career paths(thanks to WSO).I am pretty sure i want to work in the Asset Management industry .I am particularly interested in Hedge funds.So my questions are :

1.Are most Hedge funds highly quantitative in nature?

  1. I know it is extremely difficult to break into a Hedge fund, but what would be the most common career profile of a person employed at a hedge fund.

  2. IB---->MBA---->HF or AM (MF)---->MBA---->HF .Which is a better path?

3.Would a Masters in Finance (or Financial Engineering.If yes then which one?) better prepare me for AM than MBA.

  1. To increase my employability should i intern at a large MF(by Indian standards) or a small Hedge Fund?

It would be of great help if some of the senior members could share their views here Thanks.

3 Comments
 
Best Response

engineering and cfa level 1 should be enough to get into an entry level position in IB or a HF/Am. It should also be sufficient to get into a quantitative fund as well, although I would recommend working at a BB before jumping in to the buy side. I would never recommended you do IB, only to jump in to a quantitative fund, though I would suggest doing IB if you want to join a Hedge fund which might be focused on long/short or M&A arb. Even for these strategies, i've noticed lately some jobs require candidates to have significant quant skills, such as programming skills. I would definitely recommend you look into MFE programs particularly at Columbia because they let you combine it with an MBA.

 

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