I'm currently at a >15bn L/S market Neutral fund, but I'm considering an offer from a sector focused LO with AUM >$5B due to personal reasons. It's >$5bn Long biased fund focused on a single sector and is pretty well respected within the sector. The founder is a bit of a legend. This job allows me to be closer to family in the meantime, but I eventually want to transition back to a L/S or MM fund after ~2years. A recruiter told me going to a LO makes it almost impossible to make the transition back to a L/S or MM fund as they typically don't give LO candidates interviews in her experience.
1. Is this true?
2. How hard is it to the transition?
3. Any advice on what to do or how to make the transition easier?
4. Should i take the offer or is it career suicide given my goals?
5. My current fund is a $15bn Market neutral fund that is also well respected. Does this experience matter?
Any advice will be highly appreciated.
If by “>$5bn” you mean aum in the $5-10bn range then this could unfortunately be considered pretty ‘no-name’ by LO standards. Wouldn’t say it shuts the door completely but would probably significantly decrease the quality of looks you’d get from both SMs and pods.
It's >$5bn Long biased fund focused on a single sector. It is actually well respected within the sector and the founder is a bit of a legend. My current fund is a $15bn Market neutral fund that is also well respected. Does that experience matter?
If the new fund is still L/S and equally well-known I wouldn’t worry about it
Recruiter is lying to you. Going to a LO only opens up more doors for you than being at a MM from my experience. Can make a pivot back to longer duration L/S or honestly MM again. I’ve seen a few jr ppl from LOs move to MMs. Also why do y want to go back? Comp upside might be higher but stress/work hours adjusted comp is much higher at a LO
Thank you so much for this perspective. Definitely agree about the comp adjusted advantage of LOs but I wanna transition back basically to optimize for the potential upside at a MM. Hoping to gain deep sector knowledge then leverage that at a MM for the upside.
You shouldn’t worry about this - I know many LO ppl that try out MM or HFs after a few years at a LO. I don’t think you should be so worried about this. Frankly it’s much harder to do the opposite and go from pod to LO.
Bump! Would appreciate more perspective
I started my career at LO and moved to MM HF. You already have MM HF on your resume. BD at MM will have no issues reaching out to you, but have a good story as to why you left for LO and want to move back to MM.
The recruiter either doesn't know shit or is incentivized to lie to you (eg getting you a pod job will get them more $$$).
Thanks for your perspective. Do you mind sharing why you switched to MM and how your experience and comp progression has differed? Also did your LO experience help you in your new role or did you find yourself struggling to learn a new style? Thanks once again
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