I am currently in my last year of engineering, in which I am not interested at all. My final goal is to work in a Hedge Fund.
I am currently in my last year of engineering, in which I am not interested at all. My final goal is to work in a Hedge Fund. I have no experience in trading or investing in the stock market although I read news related to financial markets everyday. I have also done courses from Coursera related to financial markets and accounting but I know this is not nearly enough. Please tell me where should I start? I have been working hard for the past 2 years but I still don't think that I am making major progress. Please guide me where should I start!
First you need to really think if working at a hedge fund is what you really want to do. Most in college are interested in hedge funds because they think of it as very prestigious and a career where you make a lot of money, both of which are not entirely true.
Yes, you can make a lot of money, but you need to be very interested in the work otherwise you will burn out and quit very quickly. I have seen a lot of people join the hedge fund space and leave after just a year because it was not what they expected.
My advice to you is to buy a ton of investing books and read as much as you can. Once you have read 10-20 investing books, then you can see if you are still interested. In the meantime, shoot for a general investment banking/consulting/equity research job so you can build a good foundation to prepare you.
Buyside Hustle has a ton of really good information written by a guy in the hedge fund industry. Talks about how to break into the industry and the what the work really is like.
My major reason for selecting the hedge fund industry is because of the knowledge they possess. I have seen countless interviews of hedge fund managers and what stuck with me is that they are extremely knowledgeable. I mean they have a lot of information, ofcourse, but they can connect the dots and events which deceptively seems unrelated to each other and whenever I read this kind of news my eyes light up with excitement. I understand that many will find this thought naive and maybe I am but I still want to work in this field. And thank you for your advice! I will surely start reading books related to this field. But if you can give me suggestions on which books I should read it will be of great help.
I agree with hello84. I was a CS major and wound up in finance. Burnout is real, and very few hang on long enough for the big paydays that got you into finance. Most frustrating for engineering backrounds IMO is that your success is tied to factors mostly out of your control; your success is not directly tied to the quality of your work. This randomness really frustrated me early on. There is no harm trying finance out, but I was happier when I made less as a military contractor.
Sounds like me a few years ago except I was in music performance. I ended up doing an MSF because I knew I needed more time for internships and a chance to rebrand as a finance major. If possible, I would maybe suggest picking up a finance minor and joining any investment clubs at your school while you still can. Maybe even an MSF; it helped me. Do everything you can to get internship experience. Send networking emails to new people every day or at least every week.
You also want to decide want asset classes and strategies you think you would prefer and why. You need to develop those kinds of labels for yourself so people will know you're serious and help you more. I found my preferences when I opened my personal trading account; it taught me a lot about markets and myself. At least open a paper account.
With the engineering background, quant finance could be an option if you do a masters. They prefer you have some background in differential equations, probability theory, and linear algebra.
Get some materials on financial modeling. At the very least I think you should get a solid foundation in building 3-statement projections, DCF, and Comps models. I like the BIWS courses and the IB book by Pearl/Rosenbaum.
But why?
My major reason for selecting the hedge fund industry is because of the knowledge they possess. I have seen countless interviews of hedge fund managers and what stuck with me is that they are extremely knowledgeable. I mean they have a lot of information, ofcourse, but they can connect the dots and events which deceptively seems unrelated to each other and whenever I read this kind of news my eyes light up with excitement. I understand that many will find this thought naive and maybe I am but I still want to work in this field.
This does not sound like the right fundamental reason to pursue a career in HF.
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