Making yourself a good candidate for hedge funds

Hi everyone,

I wouldn't be surprised if posts like this one make you sick, but I most certainly wouldn't be posting if I thought I had found a definitive answer through my rigorous searching. In fact, the messages seem to be very mixed, so I thought why not see if anyone with experience could be so kind to help out. Hopefully the thread will end up benefitting many more people than myself.

A short background story: I have a B.Sc. Degree in Economics from a small European country. Already figured that my only way to break into the Financial Industry would be to get into a top top master's program abroad, so I graduated summa cum laude and took a year off for an internship and to take some extra classes to sharpen my skills. Have taken every finance elective possible, including two great classes at Stanford during a summer exchange. Already been accepted to some fantastic programs in US and UK and interviewed in others, waiting for answers. But basically, since I have little to no relative finance experience, I feel absolutely fine starting at the "bottom" just like an US or UK undergraduate from a top school after I finish my degree, despite being a few years older, and then put in all the work and see where it leads me.

Like many other aspiring finance people who know nothing, I can picture myself working at a hedge fund. I've realized that despite being quite good at math and having some programming experience with derivatives and time series, I'll never be a "quant" near the levels of those with mathematics/computer backgrounds. That doesn't change the fact that I'm fascinated with investing, even though I have A LOT to learn. I think what I want to do for a living is trying to find and analyze good (and bad?) investments, whether based on macro/microeconomic conditions, value or even distressed securities. The question is, how do I get there??

I assume that I'll start at the sell-side and I'd be more than happy to do 2-5 years there if needed, as I think I'd learn a tremendous amount. But where? Would the funds prefer someome from M&A, Equity Research (makes sense to me) or Sales & Trading...? I've read that hedge funds don't really care to hire from M&A anymore, and I also wonder how much relevant experience you get there? Would they prefer someone who has been exposed to the markets, who's already analyzing companies?

I realize that the chances of a HF hiring directly from MFin programs w/o experience are next to none, and I get that... If they can choose the best people, why settle for anything less? But I want to become one of those people they want to hire, and to be honest I believe that I'm willing to go through great lengths to get there.

As extremely cliché as it sounds, money is not my main source of motivation, but my thirst for knowledge and the chance to work with incredibly smart people. What I'd appreciate very much at this point in time would be some guidance on which path to take. Also if there are any specific subjects I should focus on during my master's (I'm thinking more accounting/interpreting Financial statements since I lack knowledge in that area).

Furthermore, what else? I'll be the first one to admit that I haven't been doing enough outside of school, and I realize that reading the Intelligent Investor won't make me the next Warren Buffett (although I did just buy that book :) ). Do you have any recommendation as to how to prepare myself by self-studying, whether it be books, analyzing investments on my own etc..?

Thanks a lot for reading and thanks in advance to those who will contribute. I know that this has been discussed before, I'm not the first guy who wants to work for a hedge fund, and I've seen some very good advice on this forum regarding many things, but hopefully something good can come out of this thread for all the people in my position.