trade4size's blog - Working on an equity event driven desk

Starting to get a lot of PMs asking the same types of questions so wanted to start a blog.

I am a first year analyst at a S&T boutique on an equity event driven desk in particular I follow risk arb. I graduated in 2008 from ACU (A Crappy University) with a 3.3 gpa after transferring from LCU (Less Crappy University) while the trend here seems to be to transferring to better schools I actually ended up transferring to a much worse school. In general I found school boring I spent more time reading books about trading and learning everything I could about the market than I did studying. Prior to joining my current firm I did prop trading for a unknown prop shop. In reality a personal friend that runs a hedge fund and backs a few traders agreed to back me for trading. Do not ask me where I worked and if they are hiring because the answer is no. I did a SA at a MM S&T desk after my junior year. Prior experience was in PWM.

One of the most common questions I get is how to break in. The answer to this is you bust your ass networking. I knew NO ONE involved in the industry outside of a couple retail brokers. I had everyone I knew asking people if they knew anything about S&T internships. I actually managed to get lucky and found someone that took a liking to me. They saw a lot of themselves in me and actually wanted to help me.

As far as interviews go dont ask me about them I am terrible at them.

More to come but feel free to leave questions and I will answer.

2 Comments
 

Well, I guess my question would be how to better network. I've stopped dead dropping resumes at firms for the most part as it has been almost entirely unsuccessful. I know you developed this relationship enough to get the job, but how did you meet with your contact? Also any other networking related advice that you could give would be killer.

 

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