Should I try to go directly to HF?
I'm a student at a HYPSM school studying math and computer science. I have two competing interests--startups and finance, investing in particular. I've worked at relatively well-known hedge funds before and have loved the work. The overwhelming consensus amongst my peers is to get a PE job out of college, but I really don't see the value of that since I don't want to do PE and don't really have an interest in it. I'm grateful to be at the school I'm at because a decent amount of L/S HF's recruit from here--do you think it's a good idea to do banking my junior summer for some more modeling experience and then try to recruit for a HF full time?
Some funds I'm interested in are Altimeter, Bridgewater, and Whale Rock, if that gives an idea of what I'd like to do. In all honesty, if I'm not in a place like that I think I'd rather do tech/start a company. All the people who optimize for PE out of undergrad generally do that because its a very "safe" route, but I'm fine with taking on risk out of undergrad. I have a good safety net and you only live once, so might as well try to do something risky while I can. Does this logic check out, and is HF out of undergrad a decent idea? Thanks!
Rumor out there is both Altimeter and Whale Rock are returning investor money (and turning family office of course), so maybe you wanna rethink your list.
Bump
Lol at including bridgewater with whale rock
very different funds obviously but I respect dalio and love poltiics/macro as well as L/S
No worries and good to keep your interests broad, but when you said it gives us an idea of what you'd like to do, I didn't really get it since they are VERY different. I'd really focus on what you enjoy the most when it comes to investing, and since you don't really know yet, IB probably makes the most sense. PE doesn't really exit to global macro as well. IB doesn't as much either, but it keeps options open more than PE.
You really should hone in on what you enjoy, and I think doing IB may help you spend more time in a professional setting and exploring what you enjoy. FWIW, at Bridgewater you are mostly a cog in their "investment machine" working on disparate econ problems and no real insight into what you are investing in and how they invest as the inner circle / top ranks are the only ones with that knowledge.
Also I have always been curious - why do you respect Ray Dalio. Nothing against him, but other than becoming very wealthy I never got much out of him. His principles stuff is interesting.... but I always got a lot more out of other famous investors, so when people say Dalio I am just curious to hear your thoughts. A few of his economic principles stuff was good when i was in college and i did enjoy that.
Nobody answered your question. I would go for the HF experience since you've already worked at one before and it's a lot easier to go from HF → HF → startup than HF → startup → HF. Also, the economy's close to or already in a recession. It'll be a lot easier to join a startup that can ride the recovery wave when liquidity becomes ample again.
There is still a massive amount of dry powder out there. However, doubt any of these startups will get a 20x valuation like they could a year and a half ago
Yeah that's what I'm seeing--founders I'm close with haven't had trouble raising through series A, just at lower valuations
That makes sense--I'm going to optimize for a SM L/S HF role out of college and if the startup happens it happens.
The reason people say PE is probably two fold actually. 1. Risk aversion 2. There are actually a good number of SM L/S funds that have a strong preference for ex-PE guys.
I have very low risk aversion--I do see the point about PE, but that's not a hard rule, right? At least from looking at LinkedIn, a good number of SM L/S funds don't just have the 2+2 guys.
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