Quantitative Hedge Fund PM Career Path? boatboy's picture?
Hello everybody. I am currently a senior in high school, and will be attending a strong semi-target starting this fall. I plan to major in both finance and mathematics. Recently, I have been researching quant funds. I would like to one day work in a quant hedge fund, and hopefully one day become a portfolio manager. What confuses me about quant funds are the position titles. While "quantitative analyst" seems to be the entry-level job, several quant funds have normal "investment analysts" as well. At quant funds, are "quantitative analysts" considered front-office, and would the position allow me to one day become a PM? I'm sure that there is a very simple answer to this, but I'm confused and want to avoid trapping myself in a career without room for advancement (not to mention losing out on the compensation that PMs tend to earn). I know that attaining a job in a quant fund is difficult (many require PhDs), but I am willing to put in the work. With all of this in mind, what is the career path to becoming a quant fund PM. I of course realize that there are many paths, but a general idea would help me immensely. Thank you for the help in advance!
There's not really any standard title structure, it depends heavily on the fund. Many use titles like quant analyst/quant researcher/quant developer interchangeably while at other shops they are separate functions. People in research roles are usually the ones coming up with the models and testing them, while devs are the ones that actually implement these into the firm's trading systems. All of these are generally front office, but at some firms you can have quant analysts working in middle office functions like risk, so just do your research and talk with the firm to make sure you know exactly what you're getting into. As for the higher parts of the hierarchy, some funds don't use the PM title and just have a head of quant etc.
Quants also don't have as much of a well-defined career path as someone who goes into IB or PE etc. Many will have studied computer science, physics, mathematics etc and have no financial expertise. Majoring in finance isn't that important for working in a pure quant role at one of these firms - the mathematics side of your degree will definitely be more relevant here. You can get into quant funds directly from university if you stand out, while some people come from tech firms etc or sell side quant positions. The sell side can be useful as a stepping stone but be careful which roles you go for, as many roles here have quant-sounding titles but are a long way removed from the work that front office quants do.
One thing I would advise is not to pursue a PhD purely to land a quant role. This takes many years (often more than you anticipate when starting it) and isn't a guarantee of getting a job. Hope this helps.
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