Medical Doctor to Hedge Fund route?
Hi guys. I'm a medical doctor in the UK. Graduated and worked in the NHS for 2 years, I enjoyed the critical thinking aspect and working in a multidisciplinary team, but ultimately realised I wasn't really passionate nor interested in pursuing medicine as a career...
So my story for wanting to get into a hedge fund is: I've always been quite entrepreneurial and drawn to stock investing, love to understand how geopolitics/psychology works, intrigued by the big personalities (Soros, Cohen, Dalio, Dimon et al). In 2023 I watched the regional banking crisis unfold and got really interested in how it happened. I ended up on a youtube vid breaking down all the regional bank financials and it seemed like $WAL had a healthy bond/balance sheet. I invested and it went well, ever since I've been been spending most of my free time deep diving into individual stocks.
A year ago I went from full-time to part-time medicine, pooled some funds from friends and family and have been running a portfolio of $100k. I know it's a small amount, but I wanted to test myself and experience the pressure of managing other people's money. I primarily run L/S on tech and finance stocks. To put my medical knowledge to use I also run L/S on public biotech companies, basing my decisions on the market-viability of their products/research. I've been relatively successful so far, and I think it's something I can develop if I invest more time. I've learnt basic DCF, 3-statement model interpretation and technical analysis for entry/exit points.
I've spoken to friends in consulting/IB/PE/VC and they tell me it's almost impossible to get into a HF. P72 Experienced Academy would be the only lucky route in. Otherwise I would have to go the IB/ER route for 2-5 years before I'm even considered for a HF.
Conclusion:
I have passion and think I have the aptitude to develop the skills to be successful at a HF. My goal is to end up as a HF analyst in any sector to run L/S equity. I'm quite flexible on location but preferably the UK/Singapore
So I'm asking how I could get there. More networking? What are my odds of even getting into ER/IB as an MD? Do I need to build some street cred in Consulting first? Does my uni prestige matter? Or can I sell my myself with my work experience? Should I do an MSc so I can apply for graduate internships in HF?
Any advice is deeply appreciated...
P72 experienced academy perhaps? Firm I’m going to does grad program but not an experienced hire one so I don’t think anyone other than P72 runs something specific to you.
Have seen an ex NHS doctor PM at one of the large MMs, but they started out in sellside ER. Some firms have ER pipelines for advanced degrees/docs
Terrible advice from a college kid as always on this forum. Point72 experience program is a horrific fit for someone who is interested in getting into finance in order to do biotech. None of the skills you learn there will help for biotech
Nowhere in the post did they specify that they exclusively want to do biotech L/S? Did I miss something? They said they wanted to break into a hedge fund and have been personally investing in biotech alongside Mag7 and finance stocks.
lol? Their post is pretty open in terms of wanting to get into a hedge fund generally.
MD at an HF here. Unfortunately, you’re in the wrong country to take this path. There’s virtually no biotech innovation going on in the UK and very little on the buyside as well. Everything is in the US, concentrated in NYC, SF, and Boston. The path would be to go to ER or IB through a mix of networking and self-teaching while selling your medical background but idk if anything in London is really worth your time. IB is easier to get in the US bc there are more seats whereas ER has very low headcount and there are plenty of PhD types going for those already
Hey, sorry about the misunderstanding, I've edited my post for clarity. I'm not particularly interested in biotech innovation, but was using biotech as an example of how I have been applying my medical degree to public biotech equities. I actually do more L/S on public tech companies (and more interested in that). End goal is to end up at an HF doing L/S, don't mind the sector.
I appreciate the info tho, and having added more context now, would love to hear your thoughts
I responded more in another comment below, but short version is that you offer very little incentive for anyone to hire you if you are not covering a healthcare sector. Your story also won't make much sense to many people. I know there are cultural differences b/w the US and UK, but if anything my understanding is that career switching is actually easier in the US, where I already had a lot of trouble getting people to bite on my career transition from medicine. If it weren't for the healthcare hook, wouldn't really think I would be where I am. Doctors are thoroughly unqualified to transition to finance as a starting point, so it makes literally zero sense to try to force a square peg into a round hole. Not interested in life sciences innovation? Better start getting interested if you want to successfully transition imo
there are seats in London that that trade US biotech no?
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Congrats - learning first hand the primacy of ignoring americans on WSO. Recruiting culture is different in London vs the States, so you need to learn to filter out advice that is non-applicable to you. Push for sellside, learn the ropes and then move over to a hedge fund. There are pharma/life sciences and medtech teams floating around, but not much of a pureplay biotech scene as pointed out by others.
NHS experience is valuable, particularly if you have insight into how materials/devices get approved for use into the NHS or how contracts are awarded. My first port of call if I'm you is finding research/banking analysts that have a medical degree in the UK and trying to connect with them. Pharma research teams are pretty keen to hire ex physicians from what I have seen and the research to hedge fund pipeline is very common in London.
Do not feel restricted to healthcare or biotech. I don't know why other commenters are wanting to pigeon hole you to this. Take whatever opportunites you can, its better to get your foot in the door first.
And learn to model. Having a fleshed out pitch or two helps with networking and cold emails.
Oh you don’t know why other posters (like me) are encouraging OP to pigeonhole himself to life sciences or biotech? Maybe that’s bc you’ve never spoken to anybody who has left medicine for finance.
Maybe it’s bc you don’t realize what a massive waste of time it would be and disadvantage OP would be at if he tried to go into trading consumer/retail or some industrials bullshit where he 1) has zero base knowledge and 2) is competing with younger and cheaper undergrads who can be taught the same thing at the same stage of development. Why hire someone who is older and leaving another career to be a model monkey when you just hire someone straight out of uni instead?
Or maybe, and this is the most critical one here, it’s bc you have not seen how the external world mostly mpigeonholes ex-physicians into life sciences roles whenever the topic of career switching comes up. Telling this guy in a place like London where opportunities are already limited compared to the US that he should go recruit for some random sector IB/ER seat is about the worst advice he can be given if the goal is to successfully transition to finance. His story will resonate with very very few people unless it is somewhat anchored to healthcare investing. Probabilistically, "getting his foot in the door" means getting into a healthcare finance role.
Is he more likely to get a seat in some random sector or a healthcare relevant seat? Come on bro
It would be helpful, for OP, the gentleman you’re replying to, and all of us who have had the misfortune of reading your ramblings, if you actually read what people have written.
The guy you replied to clearly suggested pharma/HC should be their first port of call, but to ultimately take any opportunity they can.
Just take a few seconds to read what’s been written before replying. Opportunities are slim to come by in London, so trying to get anything you can is better than just focusing on the 1-2 healthcare roles open a year.
...
OP, definitely follow this man's advice. Ignore my advice on networking with ex-physicians and gunning for pharma teams whilst building up a broader portfolio of skills to apply to all vacancies and opportunities in the space.
Do not do that. Just apply to the 1 pharma equity research team that's recruiting in H2. Trust me bro you'll get the job bro trust me bro.
Your perspective makes a lot of sense too, I've searched for PMs on LinkedIn with MD backgrounds and they have a streak of healthcare finance roles in IB/ER/Pharma for 5-10 years before transitioning into HF. I guess my MD/work exp which is the bulk of my hard skills wouldn't really translate into other sectors - at least not more than any other grad applying for the same roles.
Let's say I had the opportunity to join a non-healthcare ER role, would it be a good idea to just take it and then try to lateral into a healthcare ER role? Just to get the foot in the door like the original commenter said
Thanks for the practical advice. It would make sense to push for a pharma/life science sell side job to get the foot in the door. It's quite interesting that from my A level cohort, 50+ went into London finance but none of them ended up in ER or HF, wonder why...
I did spend some time with management so have an idea of how funding works, and at one point was actually researching about how to get a supplier contract. Quite tough, there's a public register with dozens of bidders and dominated by a few big players.
Do you mind if we keep in touch in DMs? I won't ask for any personal info if you'd prefer to stay anon
I’ve seen that movie
What would your 18 year old self who wrote your med school admissions essay think? Hopes and dreams of saving lives ruined for a quick buck ✋😖
Simp
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