I know PE recruiting starts more than a year in advance of potential start date for mega-PE. What about hedge funds? When should an analyst start reaching out to headhunters for summer 2011 hedge fund opportunities? Is this process also a year in advance of potential start date?
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Has anyone gone through the hedge fund recruiting process who wouldn't mind sharing their experience?
Starts just after major PE. Very similar, but less LBO modelling and more pure intelligence testing.
Some hedge funds conduct their recruiting concurrent with private equity firms in Spring / Summer, i.e. more than a year ahead of the actual start date. Others, including some very good funds, recruit almost exclusively for immediate starts. It's unlikely you will be asked to produce an LBO model in a hedge fund interview, but you may be asked to put together a case study on a potential investment that the firm provides or you source yourself. Most hedge funds will also expect you to have a few investing ideas to present, and any good recruiting firm will expect you to walk them through one or two of those ideas as well.
I've been talking with a few headhunters, and I've been told that much of the long/short and value type hedge fund recruiting doesn't heat up until Q1 2012.
I've also heard that many funds, other than the really big guys, tend to recruit for more immediate needs. In other words, they'll recruit a month-out as opposed to a year-out.
Can anyone confirm this stuff?
This is definitely true.
For anyone interested, heres a Vault guide to PE and HF recruiting.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/48260030/Hedge-Fund-Interview-Guide
From my interviewing experience, the type of interview depends a lot on the fund.
Most places asked for an investment write-up, sometimes I was prompted to write one on a specific company.
A few places did give modeling tests, this was mostly for debt funds that could be said to trend more towards the PE end of the spectrum (mid-market debt, mezzanine)
Several gave me intelligence tests (both formal/written IQ tests and brainteasers/consulting-style interviews)
PE vs. Hedge Funds (Originally Posted: 07/22/2009)
I know that many, many IB analysts go into PE or go to a hedge fund following their time in banking. I was wondering what the major deciding factors are in choosing which industry to go for. Could the guys who have gone through the recruiting process and are in one of these industries please go into why they chose one over the other? What differences are there in terms of responsibilities/tasks, quality of life, work environment, hours, compensation, etc? I know that every firm is different, but there have to be some general things that separate the two industries, because people generally only focus on one of them when recruiting. I would love to hear everyone's take on this. Thanks.
Also interested in this.
I would like to read more as well.
Hmm can we bump this? Would like to see this answered...
Try this as a starter:
http://www.quantnet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1373
i'd like to know more about the differences in lifestyles - work hours.
i mean, these are the two highest paid industries in finance. we all know that. private equity seems like its a little more stable. hedge funds seem like they CAN be more lucrative (for very, very talented individuals). we all know that as well.
i've heard that pe professionals work as little as 50 hrs a wekk...and that hedge fund professionals work more like 80 hrs a week. but these statistics are always so inaccurate?
Bump
Bump
Switching from PE to HF recruiting (Originally Posted: 03/17/2015)
Long story short, I'm a first year at GS/MS/JPM. I met with all the headhunters and said I'm PE only primarily because that is just what I always thought my path would be. Went through recruiting and have been pretty surprised to find that I think I'd rather go the hedge fund route. Reason being is that I love the vertical that I work in, and there is virtually no overlap between said vertical and PE. On the contrary, there are plenty of hedge funds that invest in these companies and lots that do this industry exclusively.
So here is the issue. I'm under the impression that it would be a death sentence to go to the headhunters and say, "I actually want to switch to hedge funds now" but I could be wrong. On one hand, I know they like candidates to have a strong story and good conviction around what they want. On the other hand though, I met with them 4 months into my job, so I can't imagine they wouldn't be sympathetic to someone coming to them and just being honest. So has anyone had any experience with this situation? Successes, failures, am I'm blowing it out of proportion and it's no big deal? If I do this would I risk losing my PE track as well?
A few considerations: - I have a three year contract and I don't mind staying for 3 years, so I can recruit next cycle if need be - My group is probably the best group on the street in my vertical, so I'd imagine that would help my cause - My senior bankers know all of these funds extremely well and would vouch for me and facilitate introductions if I told them that this is what what I wanted to do
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance
I went through this (PE to HF recruiting) so can give some anecdotes and input.
"I'm under the impression that it would be a death sentence to go to the headhunters and say, "I actually want to switch to hedge funds now" but I could be wrong."
Not a death sentence without some other contributing factors, like if you bombed every single PE interview you went to, but that's not a death sentence because you want to switch your recruiting focus - that's because you're bad at interviewing.
"On the other hand though, I met with them 4 months into my job, so I can't imagine they wouldn't be sympathetic to someone coming to them and just being honest."
Maybe, maybe not - their job is just to shit as many of you bankers into the buyside/other roles as they can. That being said, honesty is probably your best shot here - you have a good reason why you want to switch your focus (staying in your vertical, which is HF dominant). Maybe you can make your transition conversation more like a segway conversation: instead of framing it as "I want to do HF now, not PE", frame it as "I have come to like and want to stay in this vertical, and I've come to realize there are lots more opportunities in the HF world than in PE. I'm still open to PE, but just given the concentration of HF activity, I'd also like to start exploring those opps". Some HH's will immediately show you some stuff, some won't, some will keep emailing you opportunities that don't fit whatsoever years later (or at least, I still get some emails for whatever reason). That'll also preserve PE opps for you.
A few notes on HF recruiting in general, all from my experience (so grain of salt, etc.) - HF's tend to not have the same sort of recruiting cycle that PE firms do. It's way more need-based and ad hoc, which also means both year round recruiting as well as most opportunities being immediate starts. That means you might want to be wary of tipping your hand to your senior guys, but OTOH, a lot of times recruiting can happen informally where senior guys reach out to each other and you'll get some email forwards.
Hope this helps.
That is extremely helpful and some great advice. Thank you for taking the time to write that out, I really appreciate it. Did you ultimately land at a hedge fund?
Recruiting - HF and PE recruitment? (Originally Posted: 01/15/2009)
What do you think recruiting will be like this year for HF and PE given that few people have real deal experience?
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