Hi All,
I’m very much interested in Geopolitics. What are the careers in finance which involves this? And what are the apt certification/s which will enable me to break through this kind of work? Thank you!
Macro hedge funds focus on geopolitics. A quick word of warning, though, in my opinion global macro funds are generally one of the most-difficult fund types. Many are led by managers who think the world should operate like they envision or as their model tells them to versus seeing the world as it is. (See: LTCM) A lot of play in currencies, which is characterized by long periods of calm, luring leveraged investors to sleep then rapid changes that can ruin firms.
What’s your background? Can’t really comment on your options otherwise.
Anyway, most finance jobs that involve decision making are influenced by geopolitical events, given the broad effects on asset prices.
Macro hedge funds seem interesting. Do I have to take an economics graduate degree to be able to enter this kind of career? And at the moment, I have not yet heard of a macro hedge fund operating in my country.
btw, my background is that I have a year experience as a loan officer and 2 years experience in capital market deal structuring and loan syndication. Though I understand the point that almost all finance jobs are influenced by geopolitics, I would like to have a role which involves more geopolitics. I don’t know where to start and where to go.
Hey man, I’m not sure what they are looking for. And it’s likely most people here don’t either. You know who would know who would know what macro funds are looking for in hires? The hedge funds themselves! Off of the top of my head, I think the biggest global macro funds are ran by Ray Dalio and Paul Tudor Jones. If you google them, it’s likely you can find their macro funds. Then you can check job listings for associate positions.
Not crushing your dream, but I’ve heard at these top hedge funds, it requires more than simply having the necessary qualifications. Many have a pipeline from top business schools and tend to hire kids that did the same athletics (lacrosse is big here) or fraternities. Here’s an article outlining the “secret handshake” and the way that frats recruit from their own over more-qualified applicants.
And that’s for bulge-bracket banks; it’s presumably worse for higher-paying hedge fund shops. An interesting side note: Paul Tudor Jones is mentioned in this story as a frat alum that is represented the most on Wall Street. If you haven’t been let in now, it’s unlikely any further experience is going to get you there.
Here’s where networking comes in. Check around to see who you know that got hired on Wall Street and see if you can take them out for coffee. See if they have HF contacts. Find where they hang out in your city. Follow a few on Twitter, etc.; increase your visibility.
Next, prepare for rejection. A quick story: I applied for a job that I met all the qualifications for at a buy-side firm. The hiring manager went to the same university I did, same undergrad degree (if I remember correctly), and was a CFA charterholder (at the time I was a L3 candidate). Long story short, I felt we had a lot in common. Apparently, so did the HR manager because she forwarded my name to the HM and (what now seems to be a mistake) cc-ed me. I was cautiously optimistic.
Well, a week later I still had not been contacted by anybody, so I naturally reached out to the HM (forwarding the email sent to both of us) discussing how much we had in common (school, degree, CFA track). Additionally, I mentioned if the position had been filled I’d love to have coffee and learn from his experiences in the industry.
Five minutes later, I got an email that I had been rejected from the position (it looked like a non-form email and was sort of harsh in its delivery). About a month later, I tried to check the position; it appeared they had locked me out of their job account.
I thought that was a little overkill and kind of rude considering a complimentary follow-up one week later is sort of SOP (a “sorry, I’m busy and we’re going another direction for the job but I wish you luck” would have been fine), but American companies now treat job candidates like inputs and not people, so prepare for lots of rejection and to be treated like a commodity.
That was the first time I tried to use my CFA track to network; it failed miserably. If I do receive the charter, I’m going to network more; hopefully this one time is not indicative of CFA’s networking opportunities.
Wow! Someone that actually has interacted with Itera!
Shouldn’t you become a journalist or something then… It seems like the barriers to entry are much lower. I don’t know if you can just walk into Soros office and get hired.
If I went to the same school as Soros and was cc-ed into an email with him for a job interview, you’re damn right I’m going to follow up and discuss what we have in common. You have to take your shots man. And it’s not my first choice, but whatever pays the most commas my man. Besides, I think quite a few financial journalists make bank. The way jobs in finance are rapidly being replaced by fintech and people shifting to low-cost index funds, we all may have to become journalists one day.
Lol, Itera has always been ok with me and everything I’ve seen, but I don’t know him well. But I’ve always thought the charterholders that come on here to throw shade at candidates aren’t happy with their positions in life tho…
Sorry, I was talking to the original question. If someone really wants to work in “geopolitics”, then there are many careers outside finance with more defined entry points for many people. If someone says, “yes but it must be in finance”, that just means “yes, but I love money more”, at which point I would say just get any finance job. Priorities and all that.
My bad Ohai! *extends handshake*