Q&A: From IB to HF in London to LO in Dubai.
I worked at an EB in London for 2 years before making the move to L/S at a MM in London. Decided to settle for a LO gig in Dubai at a family office style shop. Haven’t been active on here for years but thought I would give back to the community. AMA
It seems like your query is about transitioning from Investment Banking (IB) to Hedge Funds (HF) in London and then to a Long-Only (LO) role in Dubai at a family office-style shop. However, the specific details or context for your AMA (Ask Me Anything) are not provided in the knowledge base.
I'm sorry, but it looks like this may be out of my ability to answer... maybe some of the links below might help?
Hey, thanks for doing this. A few questions only you could answer:
Thanks again, and congrats on the move.
Good questions.
1. A lot of this was networking with recruiters. HF processes are a lot more ad hoc, so it’s important that you express your preference to HHs early on and check back every couple of months. Recruiters also typically don’t like candidates applying for both PE and HF, so you need to be strategic with how you express your interest. That said, I wouldn’t rely completely on recruiters as many are pretty useless so you should be networking with analysts at pods as well as hedge fund sales guys at BBs as they usually have good insight into which pods are hiring. You can then leverage that info in convos with recruiters as well as direct LinkedIn outreach.
2. I think at a certain point in banking, we feel like any gig on the buyside is better. However, the guys anchored on publics, which are convinced that PE is banking 2.0 and want to avoid that circus altogether, sometimes fail to realise that L/S at a pod is in many ways no different. You spend so much time churning out models that have the perceived value of being more “intellectually stimulating” but you rarely even have time to step back to think like an actual investor. You’re literally grinding earnings for 4-5 months of the year depending on how wide your coverage is. Pay is great, but it’s contingent on many things out of your control (i.e., PM). Ultimately I realised that I want something with better balance that pays the same over the long term when you smooth out earnings for career vol.
3. I had no regional ties, but networking helps. People are typically more open to giving advice here since WLB (depending on where you land) tends to be better and people here have a different mindset / are more open to meeting new people. There isn’t much top local talent, so recruiting tends to happen from Europe / US. The US guys, however, barely get any tax benefit, and so the Dubai proposition is less appealing for them. Most buyside folks here are therefore European who recruited directly or lateraled internally.
4. Headcount is much smaller here so people care about pedigree. L/S experience helps since it implies strong work ethic / less retardation. I don’t think it’s necessary, though.
5. London experience stays with you forever. I think if you get the chance to do buyside in London you should take it, but keep the move to ME top of mind and look for opportunities internally after a year or so. If the goal is ME, don’t waste too much time sharing 50% of your earnings with the clowns running the country. The compounding benefit you get from moving here earlier really works wonders.
Thanks. At a London BB now and interested in following questions:
1. How do you transit from banking to hedge fund? Especially any useful resources to prepare for interviews / stock pitches? Thought these are quite different than PE or IB interviews, and I personally find it more difficult to find the good “catalyst” in a pitch.
2. How is the comp progression at fundamental L/S MM in London? Thought ~GBP 120k base and 100% bonus for first year? What will be progression afterwards?
3. How difficult to survive in a MM pod? (% of people remaining / pushed out after 1.5 years?), or is it more team / pod dependent?
4. What makes you to move to L/O in Dubai? Comp, lifestyle, or sth. Else?
Thank you!
Thanks for the questions and apologies I’ve been travelling so haven’t been checking WSO.
1. I agree that most resources are PE focused. The best resource I know for HF recruiting is probably exit-alpha.com it’s a bit lowkey but imo it’s the most helpful one out there
2. Very pod dependent. £120k base is standard and most pods these days will guaranteee 100% bonus in year one, but after that it’s anyone’s draw. Right tail is very fat, if you get lucky, however.
3. Like above, very pod dependent.
4. Lifestyle, tax, wealth compounding. Now when I visit London, I actually enjoy my stay there.
Really helpful, thanks for sharing!
Just a few things I was curious about:
Hope these are relevent. Im a high schooler (junior) and really like to learn about the markets and read a ton (i.e. reading the wsj for 6 years every day, intellgent investor like five times, all buffet partnership letters and berkshire hathaway letter a couple of times, and some other standard value reading material). I was wondering what your path from hs to college looked like and how you got into your univerity and what to do there. Also, how do you think that I could get an internship somewhere and how i could provide value and not harm the productivity at the firm. What does your investing process look like from beginning to end? also, do you think that its important to stick with your thesis no matter what, and when does the pain get to high to ignore? also, what do your hours and comp look like?
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