The battle for talent in the hedge fund world is fiercer than ever — and it cuts across all levels and positions.
With six-figure starting salaries, intense work environments, and the chance to work alongside some of the industry’s top investors, these roles are among the most competitive in finance.
Internships can pay over $5,000 a week. Salaries for entry-level analysts and software engineers are often in the six-figure range. Portfolio managers with winning strategies can take home tens of millions.
Business Insider has interviewed recruiters and investors at top hedge fund managers like Citadel, Millennium, and Point72 about how they attract and evaluate talent, and what advice they’d give to anyone hoping to break in.
Here’s everything we know about getting a job at a large hedge fund.
Internships
Years ago, the opaque and secretive world of hedge funds might not have been an obvious career choice for most college graduates on their path to Wall Street. However, these investing behemoths are now investing in getting young, diverse wunderkinder, especially mathletes, familiar with their brands as early as high school.
Internships are another talent pipeline for some of the biggest multi-strategy hedge funds, which employ armies of traders and engineers. Programs can be uber-competitive and harder to get into than many top Ivy League schools.
Citadel’s summer internship program, for example, has become increasingly competitive. This year, the hedge fund accepted around 300 interns to spend 11 weeks at Griffin’s hedge fund or his market maker, working with stock-pickers, quants, engineers, and more. The firm told BI that there were more than 108,000 applicants for the programs, with an acceptance rate of roughly 0.4%.
- Here’s how to land a spot at Citadel’s summer internship
- Citadel’s associate program is a separate internship that puts rising college seniors on track to land a full-time investing role at the $66 billion fund.
$25 billion hedge fund Balyasny runs a contest that serves as an early application pool for the firm’s internship program.
- Two Balyasny summer interns told us how they landed full-time roles.
We also spoke to Point72 and D.E. Shaw about what they looked for in interns and how to stand out for a potential job offer down the line.
- Point72’s summer internship is a precursor to the hedge fund’s Academy, a 10-month training program for college graduates and early-career professionals looking to become investment analysts.
- A D.E. Shaw internship could land a dream gig at the secretive hedge fund.
Analyst and investment training programs
In the past, hedge funds acquired investment talent from investment banks. Increasingly, however, the industry’s top players are recruiting college students through intensive training programs that can lead to jobs straight out of college.
Creating a pipeline of portfolio managers has been an increasingly popular strategy for hedge funds locked in an increasingly expensive battle for top talent.
- How to get accepted into Point72’s ultra-elite analyst training program, whose acceptance rate is less than 1%
- Inside Point72’s PM incubator LaunchPoint, where Steve Cohen is known to grill up-and-comers who think they’re ready for the big time
- Inside Balyasny’s Anthem training program, where aspiring portfolio managers are handed hundreds of millions of dollars to prove they can cut it
- Behind the training programs at Balyasny, which is looking to get ahead in the war for investment talent
Tech jobs and training programs
Hedge funds have long been competing with the finance industry and top tech companies for top technologists. Engineers and algorithm developers are key to helping researchers, data scientists, and traders develop cutting-edge investment strategies and platforms. Quant shop D.E. Shaw also has a unique approach to finding talent.
- Inside Citadel’s exclusive engineering program that’s helped the hedge fund snap up talent from Google and Goldman Sachs
- Here’s how to get a tech job at Millennium, from the programming language to know to the interview questions to prep for
Inside Man Group’s popular training program for non-tech employees that teaches them skills to automate tasks and reduce errors in their work
A rundown of some of the gatekeepers to know
The “business development” role is one of the most important at hedge funds, as it specializes in scouting and evaluating investment hires. Knowing these in-house talent scouts and external recruiters is crucial.
- The rise of the hedge-fund talent whisperers
- The talent brokers of quant trading: The headhunters at the forefront of Wall Street’s systematic-trading and data-science hiring frenzy
- Try our searchable database of more than 350 Wall Street headhunters to find your dream job in private equity, investment banking, or hedge funds
Advice and insight on working at top firms
Here’s a look at how some firms find and vet new employees, what skills and qualities they’re looking for …
- Why quant giant D.E. Shaw seeks out academics, doctors, and veterans to work at the hedge fund
- Citadel portfolio manager explains how he rose in the ranks of the hedge fund and what he looks for in a new hire
- Inside the 5-hour psychological interview that can make or break your career at Citadel, Blackstone, and other finance titans
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Inside the spycraft hedge funds use to vet multimillion-dollar traders, which is edging into murky legal territory
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