Hedge fund staff wanted

Among them is a search by a fund for a senior financial modeler, offering a total package of 300,000 (€478,000). Another hedge fund wants a middle office manager for a basic salary of up to 50,000, while a fund of funds is seeking a hedge fund analyst, salary unspecified.

Tanya Lutyens at the search boutique, Lutyens DaCunha, said hedge fund recruiters were as busy now as they were in January. "Even when banks have hiring freezes, anything related to hedge funds is open to increased headcount."

Lutyens said many hedge funds were hiring in areas where redundancies are common, such as corporate finance, equity research and accountancy. For example, skills developed in corporate finance roles can easily be applied to due diligence in funds of funds, or within analysis in a merger abritrage fund.

Analysts with three to five years' experience in an investment bank find it easiest to move into hedge funds or funds of funds, said Lutyens. Most lateral hiring takes place at a junior level, into analyst or client servicing roles.

Pay at hedge funds remains highly geared towards performance. Basic salaries are often lower than in investment banking. A hedge fund salesperson will typically receive a basic salary of between 50,000 and 100,000.

However, bonuses can be many multiples of this. A good hedge fund salesperson can still earn more than 500,000 Lutyens said.

Alec McCann at Robert Walters said a typical annual package for senior hedge roles, such as head of quantitative analysis, was more than 500,000, not including profit and equity share.

But hedge funds are increasingly seen as a risky places to work. "People are looking for job security, not just good money," McCann says. "A lot of small hedge funds are in a precarious position and could be scuppered quite quickly."

Ben Lauder at Watson Fleming, a fund of funds search specialist, said pay in the fund of funds sector remains very varied.

"The industry is still young and establishing a pattern; people are on very different packages in different places. Some clients take on people to train up (such as newly qualified accountants or young buy- or sell-side analysts), which could cost between 40,000-50,000 basic.

"Analysts with a few years experience in fund of funds earn from 70,000-100,000 or more," Lauder said.

Lauder added that a shortage of good quality researchers in London meant that pay for such roles was increasing.