A short statistical analysis of how long people generally last at Brevan Howard

Brevan Howard is known for its exacting standards.

The London-based hedge fund, which is thought to have paid its partners 15m each last year and has proclaimed its receptiveness to applications from prop traders at investment banks, has a reputation for dispensing with people who don't meet its requirements.

Brevan Howard rarely grants interviews, but a Bloomberg article on the fund two years ago quoted founder Alan Howard as saying, "When you hire people you need to give them time to see how well they work out and fit in. Because we have high standards, sometimes we have to make changes."

It also quoted a former Brevan employee as saying: "It's basically accepted that you won't last there."

Average tenure of a random sample of ex-BH employees: 2 years

Now, with the aid of LinkedIn, we can postulate that most people who leave Brevan Howard, appear to do so within two years of joining.

A sample of 14 ex-employees, all of whom had worked in front office positions as traders, strategists, portfolio managers, or quantitative analysts, suggests the average tenure at BH for former staff is two years.

5 of the sample left before they'd worked there for 1.5 years. 3 left after around a year. 1 left after around 7 months.

Sadly, it's not clear whether people left voluntarily or involuntarily.

Average tenure of current BH employees

By comparison, Brevan Howard has plenty of current employees who've worked there a while.

In our sample of 10 existing employees, the average tenure was 4 years. As well as Alan Howard, numerous senior people have worked for the fund since its inception in 2002.

The sample suggests that if you can make it through the 2 year barrier at Brevan Howard, you're in with a chance. And if you can make it through the 3 year barrier you may prove unassailable: only one person in our sample, a senior trader, left after this point.

Brevan Howard didn't return a request to comment.