Expectation for Hedge Fund Associate
I'm starting fresh out of business school as an associate at a mid tier hedge fund. I've been searching for what the expectations and typical days are for such a role. I know some of you will say I should ask the people at my firm but I don't know anyone yet and I asked during interview but didn't get very clear response. I want to excel at the job so want to spend time preparing myself for my start date.
From the articles and forum threads I've read, I think associates are expected to generate investment ideas to pitch to portfolio managers. I have a few questions: 1) How do you prioritize ad hoc requests (such as PM asking you to do a DCF) and working on your own investment pitches? 2) Do you get a lot of requests from your PM to work on models, pitches, and whatever to support what he's working on? Or does your PM typically let you do your own thing? If so, how do you know what the expectations are, since there's no "task"? 3) How much time do you generally spend working on investment ideas, and how many pitches do you typically come up with in, say, a month? 4) What are the expectations for an associate in general?
Many thanks.
All great questions you should have asked in your interview.
1) Anything that your PM asks you is immediately your top priority, not your own investment ideas. You've never worked at a fund, you don't even know what a good investment idea is, and if your PM discovers he's not getting the analyses he wanted because you were working on your 'own pitches' he will find an analyst with his head not shoved up his ass
2) depends on the PM, but in general, assume yes, that they will use you to do analysis
3) depends on the fund. don't worry about this for the first while, your ideas are all going to suck for the first couple years anyways
4) do good analysis, make your boss like you, don't fuck up and lose money
1) Talk to your PM 2) Talk to your PM 3) Depends on the fund's style, particularly in terms of concentration and hold periods, but talk to your PM 4) Learn, have your own view on ideas, work efficiently, occasionally generate decent ideas
Answers to all your questions really vary from fund to fund, as well as the PM's working style. To add a datapoint, my personal situation is: I discuss with my PM once a week his ideas he wants me to support on, my ideas I want to spend time on, and we agree how much effort I should spend on each.
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