Advice for aspiring hedge fund analyst.. Please help

I am currently doing a SA position at a BB in their real estate private equity arm. The people are great, the work is good and I'm really enjoy what I'm doing. But in the back of my mind, I know that I need/want to end up at a hedge fund. I love every aspect of hedge funds and have interned at a couple VERY small shops (100-300MM), and no they will not hire me because "they don't need to add costs, they can do the same thing no matter how many people they have in their firm."

I know that the real estate industry is very specific, and if I was able to get the offer to stay on full-time, I feel as though (and know) that I would be pigeon-holing myself into real estate. I do not want to stay in the industry forever, and this is why I've come for help.

My BB (GS/MS/JPM) is happy to help me find something else within the company for FT, whether that be in S&T, Equity Research (buy-side), Fixed Income, IB, etc.

What do you think my best options are? Lets say I would have these options, what would you take? My dream would be to run a merger arb fund, but I understand that L/S would be great as well.

7 Comments
 
Best Response

IBD or ER will give you the proper skill sets for a hedge fund analyst or PM.

S&T will be a good skillset for some funds, but at a L/S and especially a merger-arb fund, you'd likely be pigeonholed as an execution trader

If you want to go to merger arb, obviously IBD is the superior choice. Other than that, IBD and ER both can get you in to good L/S funds.

 

A buy-side research typically works in a non-brokerage firm (pension funds, my BB's IM arm) and provides research and recommendations exclusively for the benefit of the company's own money managers (as opposed to individual investors) Where as in sell side its open for public and there clients.

-- "Those who say don't know, and those who know don't say."
 

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