How to get the most interesting jobs at hedge fund Point72

If you aspire to get a job at Point72 in 2019, you might need to change your approach. Jonathan Jones, head of investment talent development at Point72, is transitioning out of the firm, so you probably don't want to send your application in there more. You can still apply through the Academy for junior roles. Or, you can hit-up Matthew Granade, Point72's chief market intelligence officer. Granade oversees one of Point72's most interesting areas. And he's hiring. 

"We are investing a lot in people with data science capaibilities and in machine learning capabilities as well," Granade told Barry Ritholtz in a podcast aired earlier this week. "...Our thesis for hedge funds over the next seven to ten years is that it will be people plus machines."

Granade is in charge of this futuristic man-machine intersection at Point72. "We are asking what people are best at, and what machines are best at," he told Ritholtz. The machines are best at portfolio construction and execution and correcting for portfolio bias, said Granade. The humans are best at, "being able to interpret fairly complicated and nuanced situations inside a company." 

This isn't to say Point72 is putting all its eggs into Granade's basket. He notes that there are three groups operating concurrently in the fund: a discretionary investment group where "several hundred" humans make investment decisions after meeting with management teams and applying their own brains to data sets; a systematic investment group where humans and machines create algorithms that make the investment decisions; and his hybrid group where humans and machines work in tandem.

Granade isn't a big believer in interviews as a means of selecting staff, preferring instead the sorts of tests and projects that some technologists complain absorb their free time. However, he acknowledges that interviews are still necessary, so can you probably expect to meet him if you apply and complete the tests and projects successfully.

If you make it into an interview with Granade, you might want to emphasize your determination and resilience. Granade is a big believer in Angela Duckworth's book 'Grit' (Duckworth is attending a Point72 dinner to proselytize her theory) and has even changed his parenting style to encourage his children to complete tasks they begin.

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