Q&A: I am a Hedge Fund recruiter

I may catch some flak for this but here's my honest advise / opinion.

1. The recruiting cycle is bigly (cheers, trump) over saturated and prioritized. The industry leading multi managers have historically recruited on cycle to commoditize best in class talent however more recently we've seen them recruit off cycle because of increasing rolling turnover. On the flip side, single managers recruit off cycle to avoid competing with multi managers recruiting on cycle. I think it's better for IB analysts to recruit on cycle to avoid having your resume front run to a number of shops that you have not condoned your recruiter to share to. There is no definitive answer to your first question but if you're wondering about timing then you're more at risk to be used as a commission on cycle rather than treated as a reference in the market who can become a candidate off cycle. Off cycle recruiting seasons are great for us recruiters to do our own business development and I think it's in that laxed time of year that people are more candid about what they want to do with their careers.

1b. For a 1-3 year analyst ranking tends to carry some weight but if you've got sick deal experience (like underwriting for Facebook) then it may stack up even better. Each shop prioritizes experience differently and to be honest it's not as black and white as some of my colleagues asset it is. My gut wants to say ranking but I've seen lower ranked, bottom bucket analysts land at KKR after giving wonderfully detailed but comprehensive descriptions of their value added on recent deals. Emphasis on recent - you're only as good as your last trade.

2. IB --> HF/LO/FO doing public is a hard jump to make without prior experience. There's a few avenues. 1. MBA and internship at a HF. 2. find a fund that does cross over investing and then find 15 more funds that do that because they have lower turn over by virtue of smaller teams. You'll need to do your own diligence here but one great example is Millennium Value Tech Partners - they trade names they help IPO. 3. Be transparent with recruiters and have them help you highlight any public experience you've had so you can spin yourself HARD. I'd star tlooking at the middle market as their hiring mandates are wider than larger shops that silo responsibility more often.

Hope this helps! My account is new but if you want more color PM me and I'll get back to you in 2 dyas when the timer is lifted from my PM's

Great question. Equity research is a stable bet post grad because you're likely to get a sector to cover earlier than and in IB. The reasoning for that I think is that IB management likes to give longer leashes to the bankers to source where as the researchers covering public clients are being sourced for business. So in an equity research seat you definitely specialize early on but aren't exposed to that breath of financial analysis that you do in IB which closes doors to the private equity and VC realms early on.

I don't think there's a real path but if we're talking post grad then probably any degree in communications, business, maybe eco or public affairs and speaking a second language is an enormous boon. Increases your TAM and makes you more relatable which is important to the job I feel.

I work with former bankers, institutional sales and tech analyst guys as well as entrepreneurs in market research and prop traders. It's an eclectic community and you can ease into it out of school or move laterally into it if you've got a great read on a few related communities - be it investment sectors or geographical or something.