Hedge Fund recruiting

Hi all, I'm a second year analyst at an elite boutique investment bank. I was a lateral hire halfway through my "first year" and was just bumped. I didn't recruit on the typical PE schedule at the beginning of the year because I had just switched firms and wasn't sure about PE. However, I'm still planning on moving on to buyside or corp dev next summer, prior to a third year bump. Can anyone give some insight on the hedge fund recruiting process and whether it's on a similar recruiting schedule as PE or if it's traditionally more "ad hoc"? I know that hedge funds are run very lean so they tend to typically hire at need, but I'm curious about the process as a whole and when is the best time to begin working with headhunters or contacting funds. I know it's been done before when IB analysts have waited for immediate hire needs (i.e. only months in advance), but I want to be well prepared to begin scheduling interviews and stay ahead of the curve. Any help or advice on the topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 
Best Response

I would say first and foremost (and others may disagree), but I'd really make sure you want to work for a HF before beginning the recruiting process and going to headhunters saying you'd like to. It's much more difficult to recruit for 1 off HF opportunities, and in general I've found that preparing for interviews (and then actually going through interviews) requires a lot more time/work than PE recruiting, where things are generally pretty standardized and deal experience/ability to talk about your deals is usually far and away the most important factor (in addition to obviously fit).

With that said, the recruiting processes with HFs, with the exception of a few funds, are almost always ad hoc because of the reasons you stated - lean teams, lack of visibility into what the future (even 6 months let alone 1.5 years) will look like, etc.

Given that now is a pretty slow time for HF recruiting (I would say spring/winter seems to be the busiest stretch), I would meet with HHs in the fall

 

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