Want to land an IT job in a hedge fund? Here's how
First things first: know that the competition will be stiff.
"Hedge funds are small, they don't have large IT infrastructures so they're not recruiting large numbers of people," explains Julian Divett, chief operating officer of recruitment specialist FDM.
Rob Lycett, a consultant at recruitment firm Astbury Marsden, says hedge funds are hiring plenty more IT people than they were 12 months ago, but they tend to be choosy: "Definitely, hedge funds aren't interested in graduates, they want experienced people who can bring something to the table," he says.
Many hedge funds rely on recommendations and word of mouth to find new recruits - with most funds recruiting just two or three new employees each year. "However, many funds will turn to agencies if that doesn't work out, which happens pretty often," says Lycett.
"The sort of experience most sought by hedge funds tends to be around modelling financial data using spreadsheets in Excel. Some larger funds have extended these systems using languages such as Microsoft .NET and C#, VBA and Excel," Divett adds.
If you have these skills and strong mathematical abilities, the rewards of working in hedge funds can be substantial. A business analyst can expect to earn up to 95k, while a project manager or developer could easily top 100k, says Lycett. "But the real kicker in this industry is the bonus, which can easily be up to two or three times the basic salary," he adds.
