I am a junior analyst at a global macro fund and was hired to provide quantitative modeling and data support for the senior analysts and PMs. I am the youngest on the team by a wide margin but am eager to contribute to the team in a more meaningful way. At what point would you think I would be qualified to ask for more responsibility with regards to performing more research for the team? My position sits on the research team and I report to a senior analyst.
I have a quant background from undergrad and have been working for 0-3 years, and I am working towards my CFA designation. I want to become more of a generalist and cover macro/rates/FX alongside my current quantitative duties.
On a side note, can anyone recommend good textbooks on rates and FX investing? Thanks.
First off there is a big difference between 0 and 3 years, so that doesn’t really tell us much. Either way I wouldn’t ask to do more research or contribute, just go ahead and do more research and contribute, and you will get feedback if they want you not to.
keep working hard and kicking ass at your fund and your responsibilities will grow too.
Must have went to a decent ugrad - very rare for hedge funds to hire straight out of ugrad. You either have the school name or network behind so now you just need to put in the work and time.
If you feel like you are ready for more responsibility, then just ask for more responsibility. You should have some broad idea that you want to look into of course. Best case is… they give you more responsibility. Worst case is that they take note that you want more responsibility.
zero? who says zero is it like 1.8 or something lol either way, it sounds like you’re at a legit place so be cognizant that it does take a bit of time to come up with ideas that help the team, unless you’re just a star, which may the case - i dont know you - so yeah
+1 If you have downtime to generate ideas present them to others and show them your work. I cant imagine any negative feedback (aside from some critical of your analysis) and even if they dont want you doing that type of work they will most likely see you have drive and the time/ability to handle more work.
there is a danger in this that I have encountered sometimes people think you’re doing great, you’re getting tons of more responsibility, and all kinds of recommendations, but you took on all this work with the hope of a bonus or some sort of upward mobility. so make sure you manage up if you take on responsibility first and convey all the extra things you are doing because in my case I was working on 10 different projects and the visibility of how hard I was working at the time was diluted by the fact that each manager could only see part of the work. So take on more responsibility if you want to, but realize you’re making an investment to the firm and it might pay off and it might not. But, the best thing to do in my opinion is just to bust your ass and make sh*t happen and then wait for the chips to all fall in your court.
Great point. And I would certainly not advise someone take on that much extra work so early on, but OP does need to be prepared for his extra work to go unnoticed as well. If you keep your head down and grind enough people tend to notice over the long term though, make note of extra stuff you do and mention it during reviews etc.
There’s a big difference between “generating ideas” for the sake of showing that you are generating ideas, and actually having an idea that’s good. I’m sure they want to hear the later, or they are idiots.