Struggling with L/S HF Recruitment?

Just seeing if anyone else is having a similar experience. Anecdotally, hiring appears to be extremely dry currently for those looking to break in without prior HF experience. My friend group and I (predominantly 2+2 or soon to be post-MBAs) seeing little activity from SMs and even some difficulty getting MM Biz Dev on the phone. HHs have been largely useless outside of DSP/SearchOne

Considering running parallel processes for senior associate PE roles, although not what I want to do long-term. For those who’ve experienced similar difficulty breaking in, any thoughts on managing search length or advice would be appreciated.

12 Comments
 

Post-MBA has been dead for a while now, have heard ancedotally from the HHs you mentioned more interest in 2+2 backgrounds since funds don't really value the MBA. There is hiring going on at the experienced level (sector head, etc.) or new juniors, but mid-level is kinda cooked it seems

Senior Associate PE market not really all that much better...

 

MBA is very poor training for L/S HF so that’s always been a surprise for kids who didn’t understand that and drank too much of the boomer PE/consulting/LO career advice Kool-Aid

Pretty sure the state of the job market hasn’t changed much in the last two years. Tough for any unexperienced hires, yes. We need more of the mediocre mid-career L/S bloat to be trimmed before easy seats will open up again imo

 

2nd this. alternatively Coinbase offers leveraged futures on crypto and a handful of commodities (gold and oil included 👀👀)

 

Have been looking as well but it's been pretty rough out there as an IB associate with no prior buyside experience. Recruiters have been so-so as some don't really want to stick their neck out for a non-traditional profile. With MM BD I've been able to get on the phone and have a good convo / pitch (they'll end the call naming specific teams they want to send my profile to) and then typically radio silence. Want to be patient but the VP promo is sneaking up on me.

 

Ngl the market has been tough. I secured my MM offer recently as an IB analyst but if you are already old enough for VP promo soon then you are a bit cooked ngl. still a chance though but gonna be extra hard for you as your learning curve in IB basically plateaus in 6 months

 

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