How was your buy side transition?

1. Hang in there. 2. Yes get out ASAP. Don't worry about screwing up or having bad colleagues. It happens to us all, believe me... Screwing up is a part of life in every aspect, so don't worry about that. Legit people anywhere will admit to it, especially the senior types on the buyside. Every shop has a few blowups or losing investments, some of which they could have done better work on, some not. It's a fact of life.

Good Luck

I totally agree with grosse. The reason for going to a HF should be 0% about your current work environment and 100% because of your passion for public markets investing.

You should be talking about your investment heroes, your PA, your interest in the markets and how it's pretty much the only thing you wanted to do. Based on your post, it seems like you will have a hard time with the "Why a hedge fund" question and forming a credible story.

Furthermore, all of your questions and concerns will be answered when you get further along in the interview rounds. There are no "deals" on the public side and team sizes are lean and usually range from 4-5 to as small as 2 (PM & you). Most HFs have 5+ rounds and you WILL meet your entire team and everyone that you will spend time with once you start. You'll also get to "work" with them through a case study and have a strong sense of their personality and diligence process from talking through the case with them.

Sorry if I made it sound that way guys. I made this sound more like a pity post, when I didn't really want it to be. I should've put in a slight rant warning lol. I wanted to see what you guys thought of current funds vs. my situation, which you guys gave some good insight on.

I've honestly been interested in working for the buy side for a long time, but couldn't get in even after finishing school. I meant more that it is just the breaking point now so why not switch to something better that is more interesting to do (in my opinion). I've been interested in a lot of deals we work on, but it gets limited only to an extent of an investment bank. I'm not really into servicing companies (in a nutshell). I'm not leaving just to go for the general idea of the buy side, I specifically want a type of fund. I didn't even consider PE, which is sometimes more frequent of a transition from investment banks because that doesn't interest me as much.

My why not is really related to the fact that I want to be looking at the deals from the other side. It is somewhat repetitive now and the work honestly gets more creative and interesting where you don't have to constantly seek business.

From what you guys say, it is a lot more of a better structure. I really want a lot more responsibility where my work is much more valued. Its not like I'm lazy now, people just overlook me and forget about me. I tried seeking work in the past, but its not always consistent and they give me the wrong work when they have some.

Thanks for the responses though they're good advice. I'll be sure never to share a "sad story" and actually mean it when I say I want to work for another company because it interests me.

It's good you've realised your mistake - the way you posted.

Chin up and go get it if you really want it that bad. You might also want to consider doing some more self reflection and thinking without trying to over analyse things. Once you know your weaknesses you can look for solutions and the necessary change in the way you think and act.

You will be surprised how silly some of the fresh entrants on the buy-side are even with few years on the sell-side. It is better to realise quickly that you need to really prove yourself to be taken seriously by the top guys on the buy-side.

Just sharing something so you know what may be required on the buy-side (or any sell-side desk as well for that matter) Spent around a year on the buy-side where I was given some usual work to do within research as an intern and not exactly the task of coming up with trade ideas to the PM which was a bit upsetting at first. But I totally understood their position - 1) I was only an intern, 2) I was there to help them out and not exactly the other way around, 3) lack of skills and industry exp. for obvious reasons and 4) trust (most important)

I worked my ass off to better myself on points 2, 3 and 4 and it worked. They were impressed. I went on from covering 4-5 stocks to 20+ in the portfolio and many more on my watch list in a couple of months. I also covered some of the most sensitive and larger positions. It also meant the PM had extremely high expectations. They didn't really train me so at times accounting skills was an issue. I also got humiliated a couple of times in one year for things out of my control. For instance, my PM asked me to calculate core 'something'. I had no idea how and he needed an answer in a second. I took longer so he was just pissed. One other time one of my stocks pre released their numbers and my PM panicked as we had 15mil+ in it and it was a profit warning. But I was prepared (because I noted many German stocks were pre releasing that year) so managed to handle everything well. But he still had a go at me for no reason. While it was insulting to be almost screamed at, I quickly forgot about it and moved on. Later he came to me and 'almost' said sorry and thanked me for my good work :)

Just to put things into context, people my level and even some senior ones had lesser responsibility and most importantly they had lesser risk than what I did as an intern. Most of those guys did retail and consumer stocks while I was almost a generalist as I could be trusted without having to prove my expertise in one particular sector.

There are obvious limits to the amount of shit you can take at work, but sometimes you just have to take your pants down while they have a jar of Vaseline with them (I don't mean you 'literally' allow people to f you from behind) but you get my point. I'm being very realistic here. And while you suffer and bleed, keep working towards your next role which will hopefully be much better!

After all this I can only say what I did was nothing special. It's just very common to work hard and a bit smart.

I've met guys from GS/MS/BAML with top group 2-3 years IBD experience in high ranking groups and top ratings but only managed 2-3 interviews for the buy-side. Hence I disagree with people who say that your first job can be shit but your second one will be good. It can take 3+ jobs until you land your dream job if you are really specific of what you want.

PS: Can't say I transited from somewhere to the buy-side as I was in uni. But it was mainly due to speculative applications. Lot's of them.