MM L/S Hedge Fund vs UMM PE For Data Science
I work at one of the major multi-manager hedge funds as embedded data scientist on a long/short discretionary pod. I’ve recently been recruited by an UMM PE firm to join as an investment data scientist. The job is supposed to be “front office” insofar as I’d be using data science to inform investment decisions, but my current role is also allegedly “front office”. I feel that I’m somewhat limited in my current position (in terms of trajectory), but my pod has a lot of success, we manage a significant amount of capital, and we are continuing to grow. In short, my PM has a good track record. That being said, I feel that it’s unlikely I will ever be able to truly transition to a fully front office role in my current pod—I will always be behind other analysts and always somewhat of a support role. A former team member who is leaving to be a PM at another major MM has hinted that he wants to bring me on that he envisions me playing a bigger role on his team etc. The issue is that he will be under no-solicitation for another ~9 months, so it would be a while before I can join. Should I move to PE? Is it a better long term career (more secure, more opportunity to be differentiated on data, higher potential comp)? Should I stay in current role (probably max out around 500k TC) since it is a reliable and consistent pod? Should I bank one more bonus and jump ship to other MM and new PM?
Is it Advent? Heard their LPs complained and now they are hiring data people like crazy
have you spoken with your PM about what you might want to do longer term and if it's an option to have more responsiblity or a sleeve?
Don’t want to say the actual firms. I have spoken with the current PM, and reading between the lines I don’t think there will really be an opportunity to take on more responsibility. As we expand coverage I’ve asked to be given names, but no luck. Tough because I don’t have much a fundamental background.
No worries - in that case, I second the comment below that it's really going to depend on who you are working for. I'd worry in PE that the whole "not a fundamental person" issue might be exaggerated even more than in HF.
So if it's a relatively established data science group with someone who will go to bat for you (presumably, some sort of senior data science person) and at least a few other data scientist colleagues who have been around a while it should help. Conversely, if you are expected to be the first or single data scientist - or some version of an embedded model where you have no support - then I think you might just run into the same issue.
I'm getting the impression a lot of the PE data science groups are very new, so I'd be inclined to guess it would end up like the later
If its Advent, I would advise holding out. Have heard terrible things about their data science team.
Damn, news travels fast. Heard the same thing
You would be surprised at the whitespace there is for a data science team at most UMM shops.
For the PE role, would you be the first data science hire or are there others? Ideally you are being hired in by a senior level data science guy to be a number 2. Otherwise if you are the first data science hire in the door, there is a chance they have no idea how to utilize your skillset.
Don’t mean to hijack the thread, discussion hopefully still relevant to OP’s topic.
has anyone heard anything about TDR’s data science group? Sounds like it’s a similar endeavor
I mean, do you want to do data science or fundamental investing? Do you even like reading 10ks, doing excel financial modeling, and listening to management calls? That's the first question you have to ask.
I might be overreaching here, but is part of your frustration that you are not doing value-able work or you want to do more advanced data science? This again goes back to the question above.
That said, let me rant:
If it's the first DS role at the PE shop, STAY AWAY.
imo, data science @ MM > data science @ PE. PE is way more banking bullshit and in general, you're working with mostly quarterly data.
Now, I don't advocate for this, but you can join the PE shop for 9 months to see if you like it before switching to your former colleague's shop. Caveat is that your NC isn't terrible.
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