Getting into a Hedge Fund with or without 1st or 2nd Tier School

If you were referring to finance in general, i would say, it doesn't matter nearly as much as you think... but since you are relating it to just hedge funds, i would say it matters a lot.

I seriously don't that think my resume would've been read by my current boss if I didn't have an Ivy background. Realize that HFs are often small and even the larger ones with 5billion plus sometimes lack the ability to train or gamble on new hires with odd background (no matter how "unique" - which is a word often thrown around by kids coming from non target...). Which is why they tend to go with candidates with better credentials because the odds of hiring a major fuck up is a lot lower. Is it a fair practice? Sure it is... as a business it would be stupid to pass on relatively low risk, high reward candidate.

So your goal from undergrad shouldn't be to land a job at a hedge fund. Rather go work for BB where you actually have a chance of making it and hopefully your work and experience there can expunge or at least offset your mediocre educational credentials. In the end, if you are a top analyst of your class, funds are going to take a look at you no matter what regardless whether you graduated from a bumfuck university in the Bermudas.

It's less about ugrad because few funds hire from that channel, what matters for fundamental long/short funds is the prestige of your work experience.

If you were GS/MS/BX IBD into KKR/Blackstone, it doesn't matter at all what your ugrad is. I think it's either Greenlight/Pershing who hired a non-target kid who had that kind of background.

Now the hard part is getting that amazing experience from a non-target, but that's another story....

so basically if youre not in target school.. shit out of luck?

It doesn't matter at all. Why would going to an Ivy and being a great investor would be perfectly correlated?? It's also bullshit that you need to be at some top tier BB / EB to get into a top HF. HF hiring at the junior level is just competence and fit, and just because someone is at GS/JPM/MS/BX doesn't mean they will be the most competent.

I agree with thewaterpiper. OP, disregard Lexington's shitty overgeneralization. However, going off his overgeneralization, it would certainly mean something if the candidate was coming from a school like MIT or Cal Tech where you actually have to be exceedingly intelligent (yeah firing a shot at all the nepotistic Ivys). Your intangibles are significantly more important than attending an Ivy.

Realistically even Ivy+ students have a difficult time getting into hedge funds right out of undergrad. Your goal should be to land a front-office internship and demonstrate that you are a diligent and attentive worker. From there, with a bit luck (the manager's personality and the HF having a decent PnL), you might land yourself a full-time offer.

What Lexington says about a FT FO offer is true, it is so much safer to hire an Ivy+ student. Internships are also more often given out to Ivy+ students, but managers are more open to hiring any intern who appears intelligent and willing to work. In my HF, I know of no one hired directly out of undergrad -- everyone who is hired "right out of undergrad" did an extended internship before being given a Full-Time offer.

I don't dispute that you get a disproportionate amount of Ivys / targets / top-tier BB in the HF world. But I still think a lot of that is sample bias - how many people who don't fit in any of those categories even apply to HFs in the first place? Personally, I went to a target and I consider myself pretty book-smart, but I think you need more than that to successfully invest in a L/S value strategy (which is the strategy of the fund I work at) - because you need a lot of individuality and creativity to go against the market. That's why I don't think taking someone who didn't go to a top school or a top bank is an issue - there are simply more important factors to consider. That said, from a practical point of view, you will find it easier to get pushed by recruiters if you're at a top BB.