Small Hedge Fund Internship - What Can I Expect

Hey all,

I got an internship working at a hedge fund. I don't know too much about the industry and was wondering what most summer internships are like. I'm pretty sure the one I am working at has under 10 employees and part of my responsibilities include processing daily transactions, liasing with the prime broker and maintaining Excel reports summarizing security positions, cash balances, net asset values, adjusted cost bases and realized
gains and losses.

What can I expect to be doing exactly?

32 Comments
 

What year of school are you in? If you're a freshman/sophomore, expect to be doing some heavily clerical work. Anything that involves AM/VC/HF, the value you can put in is pretty polarized - either you're doing a LOT, or you're doing absolutely nothing. From what you described, I don't think this will be educational at all. However, in terms of value-add for your resume, it exhibits dedication for high finance overall. Hence, you will be better positioned for future internships where you actually do get to do real work.

 

It really depends. This sounds like clerical work but show an interest in getting involved with the investment process. Ultimately, it comes down to somebody there being willingly to show you the ropes. The more top heavy the investment team is, the less likely that is to happen.

Having a high degree of figure-it-out-ability really goes a long way in these situations because odds are no one there wants to cut into their scarce free time to teach you how to do shit. It's not like JPM where they have formal training programs.

 

well i think you just picked two of arguably the most elite hedge funds (imo the top 3 are greenlight paulson and pershing) so I would say that the chances are between 0.000 and 0.005%. i know paulson likes hbs kids but doubt its through formal OCR. Basically then get the resume books of hedge fund and p/e clubs and will reach out to you if they think it's worth their time

 

What do you have to lose by taking it? I don't think it would help a tremendous deal for buyside recruitment in a couple of years (assuming you're going into IB or other finance-related fields), but if you just want risk-free exposure to an industry with minimal commitments, this could the opportunity.

 

I would definitely take it. You are unpaid so they will be very lenient. You will also get to learn about the environment in a hedge fund and maybe meet some cool people/ gain connections

 

Take the HF position. If you already have the commercial bank on your resume, there is no point in going back, unless you really want to work there full-time.

 
MistaBooksTake the HF position. If you already have the commercial bank on your resume, there is no point in going back, unless you really want to work there full-time.

Deep Gratitude for your illuminating advise. But someone told me "it is easier to enter into small HF compared with DCM of big name, so u should take DCM"......I do not know whether this arguement is right....but if it is, I think I had better take DCM 'cause after the DCM intern, I can go for another buy side internship. What do you think?

 

Who cares how big the fund is if it's just an internship? If you want to be an investor, why wouldn't you do an investing-related internship? If you're not sure, wouldn't learning from two experienced people be a great way to find out? Why on earth would you put off exposure to the field you're interested in for 4-5 years just to assemble credentials you might discover you didn't need or ultimately want in the first place?

 
tempaccountWho cares how big the fund is if it's just an internship? If you want to be an investor, why wouldn't you do an investing-related internship? If you're not sure, wouldn't learning from two experienced people be a great way to find out? Why on earth would you put off exposure to the field you're interested in for 4-5 years just to assemble credentials you might discover you didn't need or ultimately want in the first place?

Deep Gratitude for your illuminating advise. But someone told me "it is easier to enter into small HF compared with DCM of big name, so u should take DCM"......I do not know whether this arguement is right....but if it is, I think I had better take DCM 'cause after the DCM intern, I can go for another buy side internship. What do you think?

 
BigHedgeHogwho cares what other people think? think for yourself (if you can). do what you think is best for you. you create your own path.

^^ True. Take some general advice from people, but ultimately you have to do what feels right in your gut. We have almost no information on these two shops / what the people are like, etc.

 

Ah, if you don't think the HF is a great learning environment and it's trading, not investing, you're better off elsewhere. But in general you should go to a place that you feel is going to be a good fit whenever you have the chance, and not hold off just because of appearances.

 

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