What is the best way to gain entry into a hedge fund job? How can I get in with no experience?

	What is the best way to gain entry into a hedge fund job? How can I get in with no experience? I have worked at a retail bank as a financial specialist and am interested in working for a hedge fund. I have a 4 year BA degree but in english, not anything finance related. I have 4 years in retail banking and am wondering how I can get into a hedge fund. I have been applying at wirehouses to get licensed but am clueless as to how to get to where I need to be. Asked By: fahim b - 2/25/2008

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I am actually writing an article on this for a major financial publication. Here is a preview of the rough draft which addresses your question. If you are interested I have 275 more hedge fund articles on my hedge fund blog at http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com or http://hedgefundblogger.com Starting a Hedge Fund Career Breaking into the hedge fund industry is not always easy. If you are fresh out of school or have not worked in the industry yet, it usually takes some explicit networking and focused internships or part-time work experience before a hedge fund employment opportunity will present itself to you. Breaking into this industry is all about getting up to speed on the norms of hedge funds, completing several internships and then getting your first full time job. It is very hard to break into but once you are in you are in. Part-time or "working for free" experience for a few months is much better than irrelevant experience. If you have never worked within the hedge fund industry before here are my tips on how to get in: 5 Steps to Your First Hedge Fund Job 1. Read: Get up to speed on the norms of the hedge fund industry. Join and subscribe to the Albourne Village, Hedge Fund Group (HFG), HedgeWorld, HedgeWeek, HedgeCo & HedgeFundBlogger.com. To be more familiar with industry norms and trends I would suggest reading at least four books on hedge funds such as "All About Hedge Funds," "Hedge Funds For Dummies," "The Alternative Asset Hand Book," "Hedge Fund Blog Book," "HedgeMe" or others at HedgeFundBookstore.com. HedgeMe is a great book on the hedge fund industry, explaining the career path options you have, compensation trends and major hedge funds in the industry. 2. Decide on Your Role: There are 3 main employment positions for most people to enter the hedge fund industry. You can be a trader, analyst or sales professional. Analyst is the most common position and sales professional is the least common place for someone new to start, but everything is decided based on your background, skill set and passions. Do not go to a networking meeting or important job interview with a very good idea of what you want to do and which type of position you want to work in. Can't decide where you might fit in? Jim Collins in his book, "Good to Great" suggests making decisions using three criteria. Only take on projects of jobs that draw off of your core strengths, excite you and are relatively lucrative in the long-run. 3. Network: Contact professionals through the job boards and message boards within all of the websites listed above. Contact professionals at your local Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) chapters or quantitative finance groups in your area. If you have done your homework on the industry and have defined where you might fit within the industry many people will meet you with you or at least exchange emails providing advice on next steps you could take to get your first hedge fund job. 4. Internships & First Jobs: Never stop networking within the hedge fund industry. If you get an internship opportunity always over-deliver on the tasks that are assigned to you without taking up much of the hedge fund managers time. You never want to bring a problem to any boss that you don't already have a couple of potential solutions for. If you monopolize a hedge fund portfolio manager's or hedge fund manager's time you will be not be an intern for very long. One some level what you do at the internship is not as important as who you are working for and just getting exposure to how they operate and what responsibilities you will be expected to carry out. 5. Applications: After you have completed 1-3 hedge fund internships and have two solid references from hedge fund managers you should start trying to interview with hedge funds directly. My experience is that you cannot work with recruiters this early on in your career and most career centers aren't worth even working with if you want to get into the hedge fund industry. You really need to connect with hedge fund or fund of hedge fund leaders in the industry who are well connected and might give you an email address or phone number of someone to meet with. Take every meeting you can get, even if it is not the type of hedge fund you would like to work for. Much of this game is networking and learning how to effectively interview for a very competitive position. I would not even suggest starting to interview until you are 100?ertain you want to work for a hedge fund and you are willing to keep trying until someone offers you a job. If you have any less of a commitment it will usually come out in one way or another. Hedge funds hire for brains, experience, commitment, passion and character. Hedge Fund Resumes What is the perfect hedge fund resume for hedge fund jobs? There isn't one. While it is true that a few hedge fund professionals never graduated from college most are very well educated and trained. One highly successful hedge fund manager told me that his firm does not have any hard and fast experience requirements to work for his fund; his team simply looks for people who are hungry, humble, and smart. Below are some of the factors that hedge fund managers and fund of hedge fund groups look at while considering which candidates to hire. CFA or CAIA Designations Long only equity analyst, trading or sales experience Signs of being loyal, passionate, humble and hungry Quantitative experience or modeling abilities Education – Ivy League, MBA, Quant Focused PhDs Something extra – Investor Relations Experience, PR experience, asset gathering abilities, information advantages High quality name experience (Goldman, AQR, Man Group, Lehman, etc.) The stomach and desire for a high commission/bonus structure payout system Hope that helps. - Richard http://richard-wilson.blogspot.com Answered By: Richard Wilson - 2/26/2008

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I worked in a hedge fund/alternative investment group at a major wire house before going on to teach business. You need to (1) eventually get additional designations, i.e. CFA (2) network until you drop to get an internships, or almost any entry level spot in a major firm. The point here is that you will find it easier to move into hedge funds once you are in the door. Also as a financial services executive, I recommend checking out www.learntosucceed.biz. They can make the difference, sound career advice and they will answer your specific questions. Good Luck. Answered By: Xknows - 2/29/2008

The first answer is fantastic, I'm actually going to offer a look from the inside, as I've spent the last 8 months working for a hedge fund. Hedge funds are traditionally very picky, they look for MBA grads and recruit heavily at the top business schools. They also look for people who have professional designations (CFA or CAIA) and that are already licensed. If you are interested in an investor relations or marketing role they will be very interested in your professional network, who do you know in the industry. This is important because raising capital is extremely important for hedge funds and having a strong network with the big investment banks, buy side, and sell side firms is essential. I really really admire what you are doing. I find myself in a similar situation. I spent my first 3 years in the business as a financial advisor with one of the big 3 wirehouses. I really really wanted to work in Equity Research! That's all I wanted, but none of the big buy side or sell side firms would even look at me because I had a B.S. in an unrelated field, no network in the industry, and no MBA. So I did my research and found out that the best thing I could do was get my MBA. I took the GMAT's and applied to a top business school. Fortunately I got in. I knew that my sales background was going to make it difficult to be considered for equity research, so I took a job in institutional sales at one of the world's largest buy side firms. I used that in to network with people in more analytical roles. I sat down and asked them for career advice, how to get into those roles, I shared with them some of my MBA coursework and asked for feedback. That showed them that I had real interest, and eventually I was offered a job as an Investment Analyst. This role allowed me to interact directly with the research analysts and the portfolio managers. I reached out to some of the Portfolio Managers for advice, and ended up having one take me under his wing. I don't want to reveal his name because he's fairly well known, but I spent the next year taking advantage of any advice and time he was willing to offer. This man changed my life. He showed me the ropes and basically gave me a road map for my career. After graduating with my MBA, I interviewed for an equity research analyst position at the same buy-side firm. I made it through 4 of the 5 steps in the rigorous recruitment process, but was told that I did not have enough demonstrated stock picking experience to be offered a position. I was told to come back in a year, after I had better related experience. I ended up taking a quant analyst position at a hedge fund. Well now its 8 months later, and I've begun reapplying for equity research roles, and this time with a lot more success. It remains to be seen if I'll get an offer this time, but I'm receiving a much better response. So what was the point of that long drawn out story, figure out what steps you need to take to get where you want, it may take you a while but write down the steps and focus on the end goal. I would suggest getting your foot in the door with one of the wirehouses, or a large buy side firm, consider getting your MBA, it makes a HUGE difference, after you are licensed look seriously into registering for the CFA program, or CAIA, which holds a lot of weight in the hedge fund community. Know that it may takes years to get where you want, but keep your eye on the prize, and I have no doubt you'll get where you want!! Answered By: financegal27 - 2/28/2008

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