Top SM vs Pod Training Program Out of Undergrad
Hi all - I find myself in a pretty difficult conundrum where I'm picking between an internship at a top SM covering my preferred sector vs a pod shop with an established summer and FT training program. Everything else equal, I would go for the SM but the twist is that there is no guaranteed FT seat at the fund, they would "create a seat" if my performance is good enough. As an offset, I also have a FT offer at a different HF as backup so I'm not completely fucked in the case of not getting a return (however, this seat is of much lower quality/not the ideal set up for me). Given this information, would you take the SM seat and risk the no return or go to the established firm? Please don't reply if you are a college kid
bump
If top is truly top - i.e. $5b+, above HWM, HF fees, median tenure 5+ years - I would take a chance on the internship, otherwise go with the established program. But makes me wonder why such a fund would be hiring an undergrad?
im happy to DM you details, it def fits that criteria. i have interned at the fund before which is why they are willing to have the conversation
If you’re confident in your ability to pick things up/learn without a structured process definitely go for it
My comment got removed letting you know you could hit me up so I won’t say that again, but in general you need a few different things in the SM to make it worthwhile. I was in a similar situation to you and went with the SM and it has surpassed my wildest dreams honestly.
Things you need:
Need to be close to or above HWM
Need to have a lean team relative to AUM (people cite $1b per person usually but anything close to that is good). Generally this means your fund needs to be over $5bn
Need to have or promise you a structured mentorship track (ie. You work under a senior analyst or PM for a few months), very few people who are thrown out on their own at the beginning of their buyside careers succeed
Need to have studs you think you can learn from, if you think the shop is just average and there is nobody that seems impressive to you, don’t go there. You never want to be the smartest person in the room as a recent grad.
Need to have good or tolerable culture
Need to have good pay (this depends on PMs)
Need to have extremely strong fund performance where you can attribute the performance to alpha, not just riding factors (don’t even join an average fund)
Thank you I just saw this and followed up, really appreciate it
Too fund dependent. DM me and I’ll share thoughts
It depends on the SM.
not sure why comments are being removed?
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