What would you recommend a senior in college who wants to join a HF after their two year program do?

Hi everyone. 

Sort of a general question here, but I think a lot of people are in this same boat so it would be very helpful to share any insight. Assuming you are going into senior year, with some job lined up out of college that will get you interviews and "in the door" for HF interviews, what would you focus on in order to put yourself in the best spot to both get the HF job and also hit the ground running once you get there? For simplicity I will narrow it down to L/S equities

Some more specific questions:

  • What type of models should be most practiced? Three statement vs DCF vs etc?

  • Should we be making formal stock pitch decks? Are these needed / helpful in recruitment?

  • Any exercises that you think are particularly helpful? (eg: read a 10-k every week and build a simple model to get practice doing it quickly)

  • Any particularly good books?


Thanks in advance any guidance.

 
Most Helpful

Just be excellent at the foundational tools. So three-statement, DCF, relative valuation, all that. Every HF does things just a little differently so it's impossible to definitively say you only need to know relative valuation, etc. 

  • Should we be making formal stock pitch decks? Are these needed / helpful in recruitment?

Yes, you absolutely need stock ideas. In what written format is up to you as long as you get the idea across concisely and cohesively. 

  • Any exercises that you think are particularly helpful? (eg: read a 10-k every week and build a simple model to get practice doing it quickly)

You need frameworks and applications. You have to find what investment frameworks resonate with your personal philosophy. Then applying it to industry / companies of your interest. How much rep you want to put in depends on how hard and quickly you want to achieve your goal of breaking into a HF

  • Any particularly good books?

I have two reading list. One to learn investment frameworks. The other to ramp up sector knowledge. 

 

Very helpful, particularly the reading lists, thank you. In regards to the books about sector knowledge, do you think it is worth trying to develop a sector focus at this stage, or is that too self-limiting? 

 

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