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I am a sophomore at the University of Alabama, and I'm majoring in finance and economics with a minor in psychology. I have talked to my parent's stock broker, and students at my school who have received internships at a hedge fund. I am interested in being a hedge fund equity trader.

 
Best Response

For background, I'm a distressed analyst at a large HF.

First off, more buy side firms are taking college interns. Apply for these internships to get a better sense of what the work is like and to give yourself a shot at getting a FT offer.

The screening process is largely a function of where you went (school name) and resume (exceptional achievement via a competition, relevant work experience at a firm with a name, etc.). Especially if you're lacking any of the former, you have to try very hard to stand out and network hard.

To give yourself the best shot, do the following when in school: 1) Get good grades - GPA is a powerful form of signalling 2) Join clubs to learn & get a network when you get into college 3) Start spending time now on learning how to think. Start questioning why more, start focusing more on understanding concepts and less on solving the problem in front of you. Start learning how to break up complicated problems into a series of less complicated ones (try practicing brainteasers, these are commonly used in interviews). This will help make you more thoughtful 4) If you're interested in fundamental roles, start learning about markets and how businesses work (easiest way IMO to do this is to just read other people's pitches on sites like VIC or seekingalpha and look up anything you don't understand). If you're interested in quanty roles, then get exceptional technical skills (whatever this would mean), etc.

 

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Or maybe the following WSO members have something to say: JD-LAZARE IESHC Showmethemoooney

I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 

I definitely have been looking into making that move. If I got into a target school for my MBA after graduating from a non-target school for undergrad would that hold the same weight?

 

Read as many books as you can by the end of the year. Economics (especially behavioral), personal investing, financial analysis, etc. Would probably want to start off with the classics (i.e. The Intelligent Investor - as a sophomore you need the Jason Zweig commentary). That one took me plenty of time to get through. Make sure you comprehend what you're reading, and don't let your studies suffer (obviously GPA is more important). When the year is up. Try to read twice as many in 2019. Now you can get more specific - niche industries and analysis. Once you feel ready you can begin your own personal investing. Make it your obsession.

Of course, this won't help you get interviews, but will definitely help during the interview and hopefully on the job.

 

You should also just try to speak with people inside hedge funds and see if it's what you actually want to do. Often it sounds better on paper than what it is in practice and as a sophomore, you're probably going off of what you think sounds cooler than what you actually like.

 

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