HF/Trading Career Path

Hey all,

I'm currently a undergrad with internship experience in AM and VC looking to eventually end up at a HF or prop trading firm. I was wondering what the typical career path looked like for someone trying to enter the HF space. Iv'e seen some start at IB, then jump over to buy-side, and others who start in ER or AM and eventually make the switch. Was hoping for any advice or stories of your own career paths! obviously there's no one correct path, but any insight would help!

 
Most Helpful

Fundamental fund paths:

  1. new grad research position at a big fund (very, very few and far between)

  2. 2+2 (IB+PE)

  3. IB, for distressed debt: RX

  4. sellside ER, AM equities

  5. top tier MD and/or PhD for life sciences/healthcare coverage, top tier JD/MBA for distressed debt

Macro/tactical trading/FICC fund paths:

  1. top macro S&T desks (rates, fx, delta 1, commods etc)

  2. sellside macro or econ research, central bank/civil service econ depts

  3. PhD in econ

Quant/systematic fund paths:

  1. new grad quant research positions

  2. PhD in something quant (math, CS, stats, finance, econ, physics etc), post-doc in the same field, quant research role at an AM/prop shop/algo desk at a bank

  3. top tier MFE/MQF/MMF/MCF etc

Quant trading paths:

  1. new grad quant trading position

  2. algo/systematic/electronic market making desks at banks

  3. top tier MFE/MQF/MMF/MCF etc

 

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