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greene
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Joined: August 11th, 2014, 5:58 am

Hedge fund IT Intern - worth taking?

August 7th, 2015, 8:55 am

I have the opportunity to intern at a hedge fund as an trading system IT intern and I will be helping the traders in database migration and building low-latency databases.Pros:- Traders and researchers are friendly people and are willing to teach- Hedge fund is willing to convert high performing interns to fulltime staff- Task-oriented culture that focuses on getting things done rather than hours worked- It could be my only trading-related internship on my resume if I do take this upCons:- It sounds like grunt work to me. Database migration isn't exactly a sexy job.- Takes up 3 months of my timeOpportunity costs:- I could have used the time to focus on my own web development business or network with people.Do you think I should take it if my aim is to get into trading / quant / quant dev?
Last edited by greene on August 6th, 2015, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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bearish
Posts: 5186
Joined: February 3rd, 2011, 2:19 pm

Hedge fund IT Intern - worth taking?

August 7th, 2015, 10:25 am

It is hard to judge the opportunity cost in terms of your own web development business, but the expected future value arising from doing "grunt work" for a hedge fund strikes me as being far greater than that of networking with people, which sounds like a euphemism for partying.
 
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DDUKON
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Joined: September 14th, 2011, 8:46 am

Hedge fund IT Intern - worth taking?

August 7th, 2015, 10:37 am

It is just an internship . During this time if you are getting to work with traders and researchers, it is still good experience in my opinion.I know 2 guys who did internships like that and next time I saw them were working on trading desk fulltime after they got their degrees.
 
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DominicConnor
Posts: 41
Joined: July 14th, 2002, 3:00 am

Hedge fund IT Intern - worth taking?

August 15th, 2015, 6:44 am

Are they paying you ?It's not just the money, it is a signal of their estimation of you .As you say database migraton is not sexy and I'm not sure how one becomes "high performing" at it, in order to get hired.
 
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ArthurDent
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Joined: July 2nd, 2005, 4:38 pm

Hedge fund IT Intern - worth taking?

August 19th, 2015, 1:49 pm

Open your own business.
 
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liam
Posts: 4
Joined: November 16th, 2004, 11:51 am

Hedge fund IT Intern - worth taking?

August 19th, 2015, 11:25 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: bearishIt is hard to judge the opportunity cost in terms of your own web development business, but the expected future value arising from doing "grunt work" for a hedge fund strikes me as being far greater than that of networking with people, which sounds like a euphemism for partying.What strikes me about this "networking" is that the OP would rather do something like go to conferences and "link in" (sounds like a euphemism for sex or at least touching genitals and/or perving people of whichever sex(es) you prefer by checking out their LinkedIn profile anonymously) with strangers than work with traders that could guide them in the right direction and give them better contacts. Thing is doing the internship and then further education in finance could lead to something good.Networking, whether it be for web development or quant work can be soul destroying if you keep running into people that don't understand the business, which happens a lot to me on LinkedIn or when I've gone to conferences and this includes a lecturer and entrepeneur at a leading business school in London. Within a job it's easier as you actually meet and see each other's work - as an asset manager in corporate finance it came naturally to me, even though I'm not a natural marketer at all. My best contacts have always been either clients or through clients. Even in terms of careers coaches the only decent one I ever met was through a person I worked with on a website we ran together. I can't remember the exact saying a friend had, it's something like "Exchange ideas with someone. That's real networking, not handing business cards to strangers in parties".I know many people in web development - although it's possibly an easier field technically than traditional mathematical roles, it can be very tough to run such a business (I'm hoping you're doing well anyway). Similar with things like SEO, where the margins are tight and like any technology based business changes drastically. Ultimately you're no longer the rare commodity you'd be if you were an MFE grad with experience.Thing I'd do is keep it going in some capacity, even if just as a hobby. Thing about most careers is that training yourself through things like a Web development business or side projects, work on open source etc is what many experts at the big tech firms recommend. You can't control your employers and if they don't train you properly you can, in theory, use that open source project to get back on track. Disclaimer is that I haven't tried this, but nevertheless it's an opportunity to guarantee that at least some part of your skills never get wasted - you can't guarantee that you will always be in positions that utilise your skills but there are ways outside of employment that can keep it going which can be worthwhile in ways other than monetary. For instance, a relative of mine is very good at creating music and for a while worked in the industry. But he hated it and got kicked out - now he creates music in free time and used the skills he picked up tinkering with computer equipment to become an IT specialist, and he much prefers doing his passion for music in a context where there is no pressure and much prefers it to doing it "for money". Some people would call that "a waste" but I don't - to just do his job and not practice his passion in any way would be a waste.
Last edited by liam on August 22nd, 2015, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.