Using Investment Banking as a stepping stone to a Hedge Fund is a popular choice among analysts.  Investment banking analysts gain valuable skills that are easily transferable to public market investing: financial modeling, interaction with senior management, valuation methodologies, and understanding on how companies make money.

The jump from investment banking to a hedge fund is a long, aggravating process.

Hedge Fund interviews can range from 1 month up to 4 months.  This is a much longer process than Private Equity interviews where the process lasts days.  Recently large Hedge Funds have started expedited interview processes in order to compete with early Private Equity recruitment.  These processes can be very fast: 1-2 weeks.  Hedge Funds that have started this early interview cycle include: SAC, Citadel, Maverick, Och-Ziff and a few others.  These are the outliers and are only for top first year investment bankers.  Normal recruiting at other hedge funds usually lasts 3-4months.

So you are a first year investment banker interested in the public markets.  What are the steps to breaking into a Hedge Fund?  I have made the jump and will show you how to get a Hedge Fund Interview.