Route Soros/Paulson

It's extremely uncommon to land a job at Soros or Paulson. They are very different shops. Soros is a global macro trader, whilst Paulson focuses on merger arbitrage and event-driven strategies. Paulson has recently launched a gold fund, but doesn't actually touch physical gold, and doesn't employ any short-term bullion traders.

It would be more common to move from S&T to Soros and from M&A to Paulson, though you should know they don't really take juniors. Paulson takes a (very) small number of juniors into investment analysis roles. Historically, almost all of those have come from Harvard, though I know they took a Yale kid this year.

With all of that said, the ONLY real way to get a job at either of those two funds is to know someone within the fund. If you don't have a contact there, they're not going to look at your CV. I know a very senior person at Paulson, and he said as much.

Thanks. I was talking more about that style of hedge funds. I realize it is nearly impossible to get a job at either of those.

most big funds like the above-mentioned hire very few junior people. I work at a similar fund and we hire about 3 kids out of college for front-office jobs every year. Quite frankly, i dont know where we get them but i think its from campus recruiting. The jobs, while prestigous, dont pay particularly well, less then investment banking. Experienced hires obviously come in all sorts of places.

So it would not be smart to go from IBD to these shops?

no i didnt say that. i said the junior jobs didnt pay well comparatively. But if u could get a job at either of those places right from a banking job it would be very smart. However, in my experience, IBD is not a feeder into global macro though. I have posted about this elsewhere, but I have never worked with someone who is a former banker.

I have posted about this alot so a search might be faster and get you a more thorough discusion on the topic...but basically you dont learn a whole lot about markets or trading in investment banking.

My understanding is that research-oriented funds are more likely to take IBD type backgrounds whereas macro-type funds are more likely to take S&T types.

i dont know what the term "research-oriented" means, but we have many many people grinding away on research all day. But its research about macro stuff like inflation, the economy in various countries, etc. and research about technical stuff like price action, pattern recognition, flows, etc. So I would not say that macro shops arent "research-oriented".

Do those research people in Global Macro shops ever become PMs? It seems like that is more of a likely hood in Event Driven or L/S shops

Thank you for the informative post Bondarb

There's a guy at Paulson who got a job there straight out of HBS.

Sorry for exhuming this thread, but what would a kid straight out of undergrad be doing at a large macro shop a la Tudor/Moore?

60% stocks? that sounds way high to me. I know they trade stocks but i thought it was more like 25%.

for what it is worth, i interviewed at soros, in macro, through one of the major headhunters. I had been on a BB sales desk for a year, and it was for a jr spot. I think that was a rare break, though. unfortunately did not get the gig, but made it to the last round. paulson tried to hire a friend off a BB cmbs trading desk, also through a headhunter.

but really, there are abour 30 investment professionals at paulson and about 75 at soros. they really do not hire many ppl because there is v low turnover and they don't need it.

Hey guys. I have a similar question. I currently work at JPM in their Asset Management division. Main goal is to be at one of these top funds in 3-6 years after business school. Am I on the right track? Do you think I should get my CFA before B-school? What do you recommend me doing while I'm working here, eg; cfa, gmat, investing books, etc

thanks,,

bump