SBs for helpful responses. Not a ton on this shop here.
Have both L/S and LO funds. Investment professionals seem super pedigreed (both school and previous top IB/other finance). Absurd returns vs benchmarks over last decade and a half.
What would exits ops to more traditional L/S, activist, etc. funds look like (if at all existent)? Not that it's a bad place to stick around.
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Growth-oriented (so naturally TMT / healthcare), trades a lot (Alger is a big enough commission payer to the sell-side). They market so much that it gives ppl a headache. Nice office tho. Dan Chung is married into the Alger family.
People exit from Alger just fine to LOs and traditional L/S, don't know if it exits to activist. Like you said, not a bad place to stick around, but you just need to be aware that they trade a lot for a long-only (with L/S product).
+1. Any word on comp figures?
No idea.
Bump, interested as well.
I interviewed with a bunch of people there, including Dan. All super nice. Yes, Dan stepped into the role after his father-in-law died in 9/11. They were located in the World Trade Center at the time.
I think it is great shop. But I don't think that it has the brand recognition that some other large MFs have. So I don't think that it would help or hurt if you were to transition to a traditional HF role, activist fund, etc. Most people would probably park their ass there and build a career there, instead of using it as a stepping stone for another type of gig on the buyside.
They seem nice at interview but do not be fooled… it’s also not true that most people would ‘park their ass there’ instead of moving to other roles on buy side. Alger has an incredibly high churn rate in the lower and mid level ranks, people regularly leaving for other roles on buyside (most frequently to the major pod-shops but also to other solid l/s HFs and also corp dev outside of finance - activist not an exit op as far as I’m aware) people leave because to many people it is a pretty unpleasant place to work - there is a good vibe amongst the analysts but the PMs are disorganized, lack a structured investment process, and, worst of all, regularly yell at their analysts as a form of giving feedback (maybe this is common elsewhere on buyside but it seemed like a pretty outdated form of communication to me in this day and age)
Additionally, DC can be very arrogant, insecure, volatile, and narcissistic - e.g. dropping hints about how rich he is when the market is down to give himself a boost and often going on angry rants, laying into a specific analyst publicly on group Zoom calls from one small thing which triggers him which then snowballs into a 5-10 minute yelling monologue against the analyst who had a small error in their comp table or hadn’t updated the model of an unowned name for the quarter etc etc - this is pretty bad for morale at the firm and the other PMs adopt similar communication styles by osmosis
Overall - this firm is a decent place to train - but statistically you will not find yourself to be super happy after the first year or so, and looking to move elsewhere - that being said, there are occasionally people who stick around but I would say the churn rate is almost as high as in a typical BB IB analyst program (~90% after 3-4 years - disclosure: was not in IB but guessing this seems about right)
Overall - proceed with caution when accepting a role at Alger….
I picked up on these vibes during my interview with a PM who was rude and showed zero interest
Based on how much Dan markets the fund (instead of investing), I believe you.
Also, I am trying to remember the last investment conference where I did NOT see Amy Zhang.
Prospective analysts should take @qtb's comments seriously. Can attest that Alger analyst churn seems very high (relative to other LO). Can go through LI and back-test this more quantitatively. They are constantly hiring. I've seen the same TMT positions re-open multiple times over a short period. A lot of analysts have left for MM models which I'm not sure what to make of. This may not preclude you from working there but I would do a little extra DD and factor this dynamic into whether or not you take a job. On the positive side it is a solid boutique brand name in growth investing.
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