Undergraduate Majors for Hedge Funds in the Future
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From everything I've read, Comp Sci is good but not necessary. It's only necessary for Quant funds. It sounds like Finance, accounting, or Econ are also good for value oriented/discretionary funds.In terms of the future, I imagine if you're already in college then you don't have to really worry about a shift in necessary skills. Just too short of a time horizon for anything to change. Plus, I thought that trend only really pertained to Quantitative products anyway. I imagine your first job will matter a whole lot more than your major though. But I don't work in the industry so take my advice with a grain of salt.
Also, it seems like no one likes the intro class in CS unless you live and breathe Math. People tend to start liking it later down the road when you can actually create something.
I'm interested in this question too in terms of Macro funds, especially since the "Macro Post Volcker" Thread. How can you know what major would be good to have if you don't even know what job macro funds mainly recruit out of?
quant: computer science/computer engineering
value: econ, philosophy, or history
growth: entrepreneurship
deep value: religious studies
technical analysis: statistics & kool-aid (sorry, had to)
macro: econ major, double minor w/polisci & math
Just wondering, are these majors that would assist you with the work itself or are majors that an HF or Asset Manager would potentially recruit out of college (or both)? I would love to do something like Econ and philosophy double major, but I don't feel it's very practical since I don't go to a top 10 school.
yeah, major in finance, that's what's recruited out of and what's marketable. minor in other stuff to make your knowledge more whole. fwiw, my post was half kidding, I don't think majoring in religious studies will get you an interview at Brandes, regardless of your schooling.
I think most at the fund I work at like a pure or applied math major with a minor in economics or finance. Generally the belief is that applicable areas of finance, taught at the undergraduate level, can be taught to anyone in a few months and that most finance programs are littered with non-relevant courses/electives.
That may not be true for all funds, depends where you do your undergrad, what programs are recruited from, etc.
great point. I talked to a guy at a fund on my way out of college who said he hated hiring finance majors because he had to make them unlearn everything. he'd rather have someone who had a grasp of history, math, the world, and economics to some degree, because they were very anti-traditional finance. I'm not suggesting the next class of SAC Capital analysts should all be philosophy majors, but I think this speaks to the necessity of being well rounded in your knowledge.
I had a double major, one in finance the other philosophy, and honestly don't think I gained much from the finance major that couldn't be learned from a few books or training classes rather than how many ever classes I had to take for it. A couple of accounting courses and a couple of finance courses is all you need but if you're not at Harvard, not many places look at history majors.
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