I Have an Offer and No Clue About the Industry

I'm an analyst 2 at a top BB with an offer to join a Holocene/Woodline/Ilex/Candlestick type shop - the issue is I know nothing about the industry and could really use some advice.

I'm well liked at my firm and my boss introduced me to a PM at the shop I got an offer from, who is trying to build out the team. I know nothing about the HF industry other than what I've read on here (I didn't even know the names of any similar shops, I got these names from another thread on here).

My questions are mainly the following:

  • Is it poor form to start a buyside career at a less established firm rather than an established pod at one of the large MM's?
  • Without knowing all of the details, exactly how high risk is this position? Am i screwed if my PM gets fired or blown up?
  • How hard is one of these positions to get? Should I be treating this as a once in a lifetime opportunity or are seats like this generally pretty available?

Thanks guys, all advice is appreciated!

11 Comments
 

1. The firms you named are top brass. The pods will probably have more resources for developing juniors, and are the only firms where there is a bonafide track for you to become more senior. 

2. Probably lower risk than the average pod at the big 3, but also lower upside.

3. Very hard to get. Generally speaking, investing seats at top funds across SMs and MMs are harder to get than pretty much any other traditional high finance role.

 

Holocene, Woodline, and Candlestick have been around for almost a decade and have established themselves as top performers so the comment of joining a “less established shop” is confusing.

Simple deductive reasoning implies that you have an offer from IIex which just spun out this year. Imo it’s a better seat than the avg pod. Good luck!

 

Would caveat this with the fact that most jobs being advertised at M/C/P aren’t top pods hiring. The top x% is better, but your offers are probably better than over 50% of M/C/P offers being made 

 

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