Road to Working at a Hedge Fund?
Hey guys, I was writing to ask for some insight into how I can position myself for the hedge fund industry.
Background: I’m a rising second year at a solidly prestigious school but not considered a “target school” for finance specifically by any means. Worked extremely hard and interned at a very small regional investment bank while maintaining a 4.0 GPA and am currently working in a regional fundamental analysis driven capital management firm. Also was able to place at an elite boutique as a summer analyst for 2025. Since the beginning I have been focused on long/short equity, and know that a value driven hedge fund is my ultimate end goal. I have what I believe as decent exposure in investment analysis and have regularly managed >$1 million in capital since entering college(Personal and outside funds), done investment analysis and written reports regularly (Think Value Investors Club), as well as the current summer analyst position I’m working now.
I know the classic response is, “elite investment bank, mega fund PE, and then maybe you end up at a top level hedge fund”. While I completely agree I just want to know if there is something I should actively do or another way in which I can reach my goal in a more efficient way. Don’t want this post to come off as “ignorant”, I understand how hard these jobs are to reach and far less than 1% of prospective people reach them. Just looking for guidance
Intern for funds during school. If you’re very serious then try landing P72 Academy or something full time, but can also do banking and jump to a fund from there.
Thanks for the recommendations. Since I already have the EB offer for summer 2025, I was trying to prep my upcoming 2026 recruiting to sort of be sell side and buy side targeted if possible. I know P72 academy is the most notorious long/short HF internship, but would you recommend others as well. Trying to cast a massive HF net while still being realistic.
You have CAP for Citadel and Millennium pods (although these internships tend to be more informal i.e. you know someone within the pod). I’ve also seen Holocene take summer interns but I don’t know the process for that.
I wouldn’t say that the Citadel and Millennium programs are informal, as they are decently structured now. But I wouldn’t recommend either over P72, as the training isn’t as good and you don’t get the same type of runway for development. Holocene does have some sort of internship program but they don’t have anything for full-time to my understanding.
Thanks for the updates. Would you guys say P72 would be ultimate priority and then go hard at other firms? Trying to find something that will materialize in to a full time offer rather than just open more exit opportunities. Also looking for full time pay that is comparable to full time first year EB if possible.
If you’re confident you want long/short investing and are comfortable with more short / medium term thesis building then yes, absolutely go for P72 as the training is unmatched. But you have to understand that the style of investing that the pods are doing is not like traditional SM funds. You can still have and should have a view on the longer term thesis that is core to your work, but having near term views on the event path is crucial if working at a pod due to the risk model. With that said, if you want 3-5 year hold times or want to underwrite medium term theses without being so plugged in to near term events, I’d maybe just do banking then jump to a SM (or do PE after banking then jump), but frankly I think P72 still sets you up pretty well for the latter style of investing.
To answer your second point, P72 and Citadel comp fresh out of UG is at or above EB comp, so wouldn’t really worry about that.
Agreed about P72 but I believe that most of Millennium’s formal internships are MO and BO.
P72 Academy or CAP. If you can't get either of these (and its very unlikely you will get either given how small the class sizes are), take your EB offer and start preparing for L/S and publics exits
The types of investment reports you've done before, and frankly analysis, is probably very different to what podshop thesis building looks like.
Thanks for the recommendations. I am accepting my EB offer since I think it’s upper level prestige on the banking side. Hoping to leverage this for academy or CAP. Since I have another recruitment cycle left (I graduate early), I am planning on working super hard to leverage this EB offer to one of the hedge funds. I understand investment analysis I did in the past is far different than those in a pod. Wondering if you guys have any insights on how I can prepare for the case based stuff I would get asked for landing jobs as well as general recruiting. Thanks for the help thus far.
I'd start building quarterly models with revenue builds and thinking about costs tbh. Read transcripts and 10ks along with the presentations, figure out what matters for different stocks and model it out. That's probably the best preparation
as for trying very hard to leverage the EB offer...lol good luck. No one is going to care about it at P72/CAP tbh, not going to buy you any goodwill at all unlike with another bank or consulting...
You can also apply for the P72 winternship to do after your EB summer
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