Hedge Fund - Typical age and work experience?

BWB06I was waiting for some smug sarcasm shut up weasel.

I never understand why people ask for advice/help and than get an attitude when people point out that you posted in the wrong forum.

[quote=Kenny_Powers_CFA] 4) Awesome, good luck. Like most things, this is discussed a lot on WSO so do a search to find out more about MSFs. /quote]

And ANT's website.

did you run your own book before? If not, with no knowledge of anything and coming from a non-quant background, you have no chance

Thats like saying "I went to a top culinary school... what are my chance of walking on to an NFL football team..."

If you have no background, no connections and no experience... are going to have a tough time out there.

Insert generic sarcastic insult here_______.

All jokes aside...OP what's your thought process? Assuming you were to get an interview (something I could only see as a result of killer connections), how would you explain wanting to work at a hedge fund?

Kids spent their entire college careers breaking their backs to get into HFs and very very few succeed directly out of school.

What do you have to offer versus someone who's had his/her eye on that particular prize for 4 years or more?

This all answers my question, thanks. I didn't even know what a hedge fund was when I was in school and was interested in other things but am not as interested in those things anymore and curious to enter a new field. In that case, how do people break into the hedge fund world? I've heard they don't hire from MBA programs and it's hard to get in from undergrad too...so who are these people who work at hedge funds?

people who have found a strategy that suits them and that makes money or just a skillset that can be used by someone elses strategy (grunt work).

Usually you develop your "niche" i.e. your skillset during some kind of career that allows you to get an oversight of finance + gives you exposure and let you develop certain finance related skills (e.g. IB,ER whatever).

The reason why many people from ER move to l/s funds is that the work is similar. Therefore you apply what you have learned. Same with e.g. IB and PE. Easy isnt it?

Hfs are not a type of firm such as accounting firms. In accounting firms you do: .....accounting. In HFs u dont do: hf. The "HF" is rather a legal construct formed to incorporate your investment ideas (which obviiously can vary)

Dont look at hfs as regular firms where there is some way to enter, you should rather see a fund as house full of people doing a strategy they have been doing for a long time.

Thats also why there are so many different "styles" in HF i.e. gm, arbitrage, l/s etc. Therefore all these questions in the forums just show that the people have not done their homework.

you can however be the exception such as in the case of citadel or whatever and start with a profitable strategy in college. Nevertheless when you have to ask these questions it is probably not the case that you already know what you are doing.

All people here in the forum always asking how to enter a hf should first ask themselves: what exactly do I want to do there?

Yeh, at least try your hand at some personal investments first as well - get something on your CV and then start applying to banks, prop firms, investment and asset managers, stock broker, etc.

But on the whole, if you didn't do a business degree, have no finance skills, and no evidence of an affinity to this field - erm, it's going to be tough, especially in these days when there's less demand and more supply.

It's not impossible - but you'll probably go into non-finance management areas first, as one of our clearing and settlements officers did a master in arts history.

i vote for the commodities trading position

the trading job, obviously.

what kind of hf are you looking at?

Why would sales experience help you at a HF? What would you want to do at the HF?

lol, great traders are great salesmen, vice versa... Traders' skills, especially risk management skills, are useful as a PM. I think both positions are attractive. Trading job may come out on top marginally. It comes down to which desk you are more passionate about, global marco or commodities. just my $0.02...

sorry not too familiar with macro guys, only know about value funds

both positions are attractive. I know salesman who have moved to hedge funds so it happens from time to time.

The number of people who become PMs at hedge funds is few and far between. If you are great at either, the transition can be made from both positions. However, if you want to be a money manager later, wouldn't you be inclined to take the commods role now?

Personal opinion: It is about as hard to manage a big piece of the pie at a tier one hedge fund as it gets in this industry. I wouldn't be surprised if the odds of someone earning this role after starting a career as a janitor is only slightly less than that of someone with sell side trading experience.

thanks all for your comments.. I am getting inclined more towards commodities as I also felt that the macro sales role will make me more into a generalist (less exit options) - and after a few years, I reckon I can always switch from commodities to macro sales than the other way around. hope this is a correct decision I'm making....

At the risk of derailing this thread, why isn't commodities part of the macro desk?