Hedge fund careers
Break into hedge funds.
Clear, no-nonsense guides to pod shops, recruiting, compensation and the interview — everything you need to land a seat.
Independent, written from filings, fund documents and named sources, and edited by Daniel Reeve.
The six guides
Everything the interview tests — in six guides.
Start anywhere. Each guide is a complete, sourced map of one part of the hedge-fund path — from how the funds are built to the exact questions you’ll be asked.
Pod shops
How the multi-manager model works
How multi-manager platforms work, who the major pods are, comp and PnL splits, and the risk limits that define the seat.
In this guide
Recruiting
Timelines, headhunters, on- vs off-cycle
When hedge funds recruit, on-cycle vs off-cycle, the headhunters that matter, and how to move from IB to the buy side.
In this guide
Fund guides
Citadel, Millennium, Point72 & more
What to expect at Point72 Academy, Citadel, Millennium and the other platforms — process, format, and how to prepare.
In this guide
Compensation
Base, bonus and PM economics
Base and bonus by seat and fund type, pod PM economics, and quant vs fundamental pay — refreshed against real data.
In this guide
Strategies
Long/short, macro, quant and more
Long/short equity, global macro, quant and the rest — explained for candidates choosing a seat and prepping interviews.
In this guide
Interview
Technicals, behaviourals, stock pitches
Technical, behavioural and stock-pitch questions with worked frameworks — the hub for everything you'll be asked.
In this guide
Latest guides
Fresh from the desk
- Pod shops
Analyst to Portfolio Manager: How You Actually Get Your Own Book
Sep 2026 · 12 min readRead - Fund guides
BAM Catalyst: Balyasny's Route From Intern to Equities Associate
Sep 2026 · 12 min readRead - Recruiting
Hedge Fund vs Investment Banking: The Trade You Are Actually Making
Sep 2026 · 15 min readRead - Recruiting
Hedge Fund vs Private Equity: How the Two Buy-Side Seats Actually Differ
Sep 2026 · 17 min readRead - Fund guides
The Millennium Criteria Assessment: What It Is and How It Is Scored
Sep 2026 · 13 min readRead - Interview
What Is a Stock Pitch? The Six Parts, and Why Most Fail on One of Them
Sep 2026 · 12 min readRead
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Not sure where you stand?
Take the interview readiness check — 8 questions across 6 pillars, from pod-shop risk limits to the stock pitch. Score yourself, then jump straight to whichever pillar you got wrong.
FAQ
Hedge fund interview FAQ
- What does a hedge fund interview test?
- Fit and motivation, technical and markets knowledge, and at fundamental funds a stock pitch. Quant funds test probability, statistics and coding instead. See the question frameworks.
- When do hedge funds recruit?
- Mostly off-cycle and continuously, through headhunters, when a seat opens, not on a fixed on-cycle calendar like private equity. How the timeline works.
- What is a pod shop?
- A multi-manager platform that allocates capital across many independent, risk-managed pods, each run by a portfolio manager with a hard drawdown limit. How pod shops work.
- How much do hedge funds pay?
- Pay depends on seat, fund type and performance. At a pod shop a PM earns a percentage of their book net P&L after costs, so strong years pay well above a banking bonus and flat years pay little. Compensation by seat.
- How do I prepare a hedge-fund stock pitch?
- Build a differentiated thesis with a catalyst and clearly defined risk, a variant view the market is mispricing, not restated consensus. The stock-pitch guide.
Prep like you already work there.
Start with the pod-shop guide, then grab the free hedge-fund CV template.