Where will I get paid the most?
Rising junior at a target/semi-target (think NYU, Northwestern, Dartmouth) with MF buyside internship locked for next summer. I've decided that the only thing that I can rely on in this world is money. That being said, I want to work in finance and am looking for the highest paid career path. Many say Private Equity is where it's at, especially long term, but some say top HF (Citadel, Point, Coatue) beats PE. Does anyone have a clear answer?
Do your internship first and then see how excited you are about trading your life for money.
The answer is it depends - it depends on fund and individual performance. There are PE billionaires and hedge fund billionaires, and guys who are upper middle class in both. If you want to optimize for making money pick the job that 1) is most interesting to you and 2) you won’t burn out of. Half the battle in finance is survival and being able to clip bonuses for years and invest them into the market at a young age. One above average year and then burning out is financially a worse outcome in most cases than 20 years at an unprestigious middle market fund.
Echo this, it depends. The HF guys in my circle (mid-30's) are much wealthier than I am. Granted they're at some of the top HF's you mentioned and I'm at an unprestigious MM PE fund.
If you're good, I'd argue HF offers more lucrative comp at a much earlier age. But survival rate is much lower. One bad year and your career can be completely fucked.
While in PE, the investment horizon is longer and you can go through several promotions before the investments you led eventually turn sour. Then you still have the experience of navigating investments, being on the board of companies, etc. So I still think PE provides better long-term stability or at least career flexibility.
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