Getting into a hedge fund
What is the path for someone from a meh university with 5 YoE in FAANG/big tech into a hedge fund? Do they hire from FAANG? What skills should I develop and what are good companies to target?
Why would you want to do that? There’s no job stability there, two of my friends graduated from ivy schools working as quantitative traders were laid off during the last year, and this apparently is something normal and happens frequently
Because I want more money and think the work would be more interesting
Well as I said, layoffs are pretty common there, so if they pay 600k half year and you’re unemployed the rest of year your average total comp is pretty much the same as tech, plus you gotta forget work life balance working at hedge fund. Also they have this strict non compete agreements that would make it way more difficult than tech to find a job after being laid off. I was actually thinking of taking that path but my friends talked me out of it, as I mentioned before, these are very bright people graduated from Ivy League schools. If you have friends working at hedge funds, I’d suggest talk to them and understand the environment
Do it and just grind it out so you don’t get canned
They like to hire new grads because they are easier to indoctrinate into their cult. People still make it in from FAANG. Don't target a specific company, cast a wide net. Also depends if you want to be an actual trader, researcher, software developer, etc.
Targeting developer.
How can I find a good list of companies, other than the top 5?