If you’re wanting to get into a career in finance, you might have thought about becoming a hedge fund manager. Although you might also be asking yourself how do you become a hedge fund manager? A lot of preparation is necessary, even before you can get started. This includes a proper examination about your character traits and abilities because the job will throw a lot of emotional missiles at you and therefore you should be able to cope well with the emotional ups and downs that you encounter on your quest of how to become a hedge fund manager.

You should be prepared to work very hard to acquire the basic knowledge about the way the industry works. You will have to be passionate about your work and work for profitability by creating excellent networking and public relations within the industry circles and demonstrating your abilities in your actions. We recommend you check out this book on Amazon about the pitfalls of being a hedge fund manager. You can find it here.

As you can see already, it’s not easy to answer the question of how to become a hedge fund manager!

The first steps to becoming a hedge fund manager

When you’re taking the first steps into determining if you enter the business, you need to assess whether or not your personality suits that of a hedge fund manager. This is one industry whereby you’ll need an excessive level of determination as well as gumption in order to succeed.

Due to this, we recommend that you have a lot of previous experience managing people and businesses since this experience will put you in good stead when you’re wondering how to become a hedge fund manager. As with anything these days, there are people management courses that you are able to attend. At the end you’ll be given a certificate citing your attendance. Having this certificate can help you stand out from the other candidates vying for the hedge fund manage position.

Whilst it may not be classed as a form of preparation, you really should be passionate about finance, although the thing in your favour is that everyone is passionate about money. To that end, you’ve already got a key driving point.

Deciding to become a hedge fund manager is not an overnight thought pattern. Rather, you must have undertaken the appropriate steps before and a key area of prep work would be to gain a qualification in management. As mentioned above it would be ideal if this was supplemented with work experience thereafter. It may seem trivial, but etiquette classes should also be considered. When it comes to answering ‘how to become a hedge fund manager’, an unwavering grasp of your chosen language should be held since you’ll be spending a large amount of your time conversing with others. Likewise, if you have prior experience in public speaking or public relations, this will help you in the prep work for the job.

Further, a great way to prep for the job is to get hands on experience (be it paid or not) for a short time period with an experienced company. Remember that at one point they too were wondering how to become a hedge fund manager and thus they’d be more than willing to help you on your journey. This is especially true if they feel that they can make money with you. By doing this you can pick up the industry terminology, learn extensively about the major players and try to understand the strategies adopted by fund managers

Finding a job

Before launching on a job hunt, ascertain what kind of responsibilities you want to handle, what type of job you like and what kind of role you want to play. Your inclination about a specific area of business and how much passionate you are will decide the role will play.

Linked to this is that you should also have a passion in the area in which your hedge funds are involved in. There are numerous guises that a hedge fund can fall under, be it classic cars, the energy sector or even in catering. Regardless of the type of investments in the portfolio, it is always recommended that you have a keen interest in the investment that you’re managing. This should hopefully make sense as to why this is. However, we’ll sum it up for people that might not be sure.

If you have a portfolio of investments that you are interested in, you are much more likely to succeed and make sure that the investors also get their money back. Conversely, if you have no interest in say, classic cars, but have an investment portfolio based on them, you will lack a certain degree of passion. Over time you’ll become less involved and interested in it. This could in turn result in the hedge fund not being managed properly and could ultimately cause there to be a loss in investment.

It is important that you try to become knowledgeable and gain expertise in a niche area where you can show your uniqueness and remain above the average professional of the financial market. This is a crucial component about becoming a hedge fund manager.

You should also be exploring job openings in companies by making cold calls to them from the industry directories and the listings of the Chamber of Commerce. Networking through the Hedge Fund Association, Hedge Fund Group, your local CFA society or Hedge World Service Provider Directory can be useful.

Approaching an upcoming firm and showing true commitment, passion and confidence in working for them, can often result in creation of a position revolving around your skill set that promises to be a great fit with your abilities and strengths.

Having prior investments can help

Depending on your financial background, it can be beneficial to have one or two investments. Whilst you will need to have had experience of hedge funds before you’re considered to be a manager, having your own private investments can also be helpful.

A potential employer would be highly interested in seeing how you have handled your investments in the past. They needn’t be the most elaborate or ostentatious. However, having a strong portfolio of investments that have made money off the back of strategic planning will put you in good stead when it comes to applying for a hedge fund manager position.