Too old for next job?
I’m 38 now and a mid level analyst at a fund. I’m mostly a generalist / don’t have strong sector knowledge given my coverage has changed a few times in recent years. Looking at my peers, who are mostly MD and PMs at this age, i am wondering what my next job can be? Given my coverage changed, I’m not able to find my own ideas/ investments yet; but if someone gives me a name I can analyze it. I have a few names in my current fund that’s not doing well. I’ve begun looking for other jobs in the market for 2 years but hadn’t been able to land anything satisfactory. I’d like to find something this year because my firm is having leadership turnovers, and I’m getting quite uncomfortable around other people in my fund who joined later than me leapfrogging me. I was up for promotion this year but it didn’t happen. What are my best options?
This is a pathetic post. Your last concern should be other people leap frogging you (lol wtf). You've worked in the industry for 15 years and still you can't find your own ideas / investments and can only execute other people's - you also mention that your current investments are not working out. The problem is with you, not with others.
Did you read the post at all are you just trying to shit on this guy?
You sound like a miserable little twerp.
He said he executes on OTHER people’s ideas.
And he said his firm has leadership turnover and others are being promoted and he’s being passed up (ie the political tides are turning and he’s out of favor) not that he’s worried about what others think.
Better to be silent be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
What is promotion path? if not getting promoted from analyst to PM less of an issue than if you are not getting promoted to sr analyst at your age and you are not an idea generating analyst now.?
Why not carve out coverage asap and start picking stocks instead of covering others?
Also - years of buyside experience matters more than age. If you moved careers at 35 that’s less of a concern than if you started public mkts at 25 and still don’t have coverage or idea generation
"years of buyside experience matters more than age"
Not true. Hiring managers are likely younger than OP and he's not gonna be a "trophy analyst" for the team - yes that's important, and politics is still a thing on the buyside
Started out of UG in the industry but have gotten delayed in promotion a few times. Current firm gave me coverage but unfortunately the sector underperformed due to macro / policy reasons out of my hand so they hired a different senior analyst. Now I’m babysitting a few small sectors as a mid level analyst, not sure if path are open for new coverage as everything is taken
Have you considered that you may not be cut out for this industry? 38, started out of undergrad, and not able to originate ideas is not good, regardless however many times you’ve leapt around sectors/firms.
At my current firm this is okay because our pm just asks various trading desks for their ideas and all we have to do is to diligence these ideas accordingly. We have good relationships so people tell us how they see an opportunity
Maybe it's time for a career change. Assuming you've accumulated a decent sum of capital, I'd exit the industry find something entrepreneurial to do using your knowledge of public markets. Could just be a small business. If you're unable to have any meaningful idea generation or cover any specific sectors well, you should pivot. Just my .02
Just to be clear even if this is "ok" at your firm this is not industry standard. OFC everyone gets in bound ideas but for them to be the sole idea generation pipeline that analysts look at is no bueno...if you can't see the diff between this and using an LLM then well you're cooked
People ragging on you too much. Not everyone ends up as a pm and that’s fine. It’s still a great job as an analyst even if you’re a career analyst. I think you can find another role at another shop but just be realistic with your skill set and role.
You gotta take more initiative, or just coast and chill. Both are fine though , up to you. Staying alive in this industry isn’t bad either
He’s not getting ragged on for not having made PM. He’s getting ragged on, justifiably so, for being 10 years into buyside (generously assuming early experience was sellside) and saying he cannot generate ideas by himself. Doesn’t matter how many sector jumps you’ve had. More than a decade if you’re not cut out then you’re not cut out
Agree.
To be successful in the HF business you have to be wildly interested in the work and have a very high risk tolerance.
The fact that you’re a decade+ into the game and not generating your ow ideas means you’re lacking in one or both of the above.
The issue is that the HF game is brutal and there’s not a ton of room for participation ribbons.
People want to hire money makers. Even when hiring juniors you want them to be wired right so they are getting you leverage both in execution of ideas and also generation of ideas.
Rightly or wrongly, you will be perceived as low value and not a money maker if you’re in the game this long and still operating as a 3rd year junior analyst.
Based on how you describe yourself and your value add, also doesn’t seem like you have a super valuable network.
Nut up or shut up. Simple as that
Why can't you come up with ideas? Unless they very specialized (biotechnology, insurers, utilities ect) most sectors aren't complicated. Even if you change coverage people can usually generate reasonable ideas within a year
You've spent 10 years on the Buyside- do you not have the confidence? Or is it more like you can't get traction with your firm? If it's the latter you should leave the firm, but otherwise the problem is with you and you should leave the industry.
Also you said your ideas aren't working. Do you not feel a sense a responsibility? If you can' produce, get off the seat. Someone else can do a better job...
Consider jobs in 2LoD/risk & compliance. It's like becoming a referee after hanging up the spikes
This is the most insane thing I've ever heard. By Year 10 of buyside experience, you should be able to consistently self-generate money making ideas (assuming you spent the first 5-7yrs in a more associate type role supporting other folks and then had a few years of reps in a risk-taking seat to make mistakes and learn). The fact that you have 15+yrs YOE and can't do this means youare virtually unemployable in this industry if you ever leave your current shop
Dude, you don't have to get great at this -- truth is, 75% of analysts are not. 50% suck, 25% are decent, and 25% are great. You sound like you are in the first camp and that's ok. Find something you are truly good at and passionate about and do that. Honestly if I didnt love this so much I'd join some tech startup since many folks who did that 5-10yrs ago often had massive home runs
"just joining a tech startup and doing a homerun" is very probably the most delusional line I have read in 2026
Just join a unicorn bro
How can you expect to pass the stock pitch interviews if you don't have idea generation abilities...
Tell me you're a cuck without telling me you're a cuck.
I'm only half-joking. Our industry is hard and many people 'fake it to they make it' their entire career. I genuinely respect your humility and self-awareness. However, if your fund mainly sources ideas from trading desks, I genuinely question their durability. And if you rationalize sector underperformance as "macro / policy reasons out of my hand", instead of something you could have foreseen, or should actively anticipate going forward, then I question your capacity.
You know KKR built an entire business unit post-GFC, when internal reviews revealed the cost of neglecting 'exogenous shocks'? I'm being somewhat vague here in deference to KKR. Relatedly - why are you posting in the HF channel if you're a PE guy?
That said, and as others have suggested, given your demeanor - maybe you're in the wrong line of work. There are many adjacencies - business development, journalist, coach, allocator - that require some baseline of analytical skills, but you don't have to be an original thinker. Your upside as analyst is likely limited and it could be greater elsewhere. I have full humility with this opinion - just anchoring to the few tidbits you've shared.
Titbits. Pls fix.
I'm not in the HF space, but it seems to me like everyone in this thread is being too hard on OP.
The vast majority of HFs have consistently underperformed major indices. Even if you charitably assume that a bunch of these funds are actually trying to be "hedge" funds and are only underperforming on absolute returns instead of risk-adjusted returns... how likely is it that this explains the performance delta vs already highly-diversified, low-risk index funds? Or at least, index funds that used to be highly-diversified before AI pushed all of the performance gains into like 7 companies.
This makes me think that the vast majority of PMs can't generate good ideas too. But unlike OP, they're willing to pretend like they can generate good ideas, and end up destroying value for their investors as a result.
Alright, now come at me and tell me how wrong I am here, you finance hardos
You should read about strategic asset allocation, risk budgeting and portable alpha - then explain why the combination of passive index and hedge fund allocations isn’t a better solution than either alone; or, more simply, why comparing beta and alpha makes sense.
There are age limits too, it's very hard to be hired above 35-40 without running a book at enough scale, regardless of how "good" someone is. It's easy to check in any firm what proportion of recent hires are 40+ and make some guess of 40+ in the labor market for the firms using population pyramid plots. OP is right to ask that question.
This, my friend, is someone who should give his seat to a more competent woman
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