Academic oriented job as a first step into hedge fund industry ?

Goal:

Job in Hedge Fund or Mutual Fund in one-two years in UK, London.

Background:

CFA Level II Candidate

Bsc in Finance, Demanrk Top University

Msc in Economics, Denamrk Top University

Currently PhD Student in Financial Econometrics at University College Dublin .

I have no business oriented experience, but many academic papers on asset allocation and teaching experience.

My question is :

Should I focus on academic job(eg. writing research papers) until completing my CFA exams nad Phd degree) OR start looking for junior level job NOW to have a chance to work in the hedge fund industry…?

As I’m Phd student, it is easy to study towards CFA becasue I have plenty of spare time and no stress.

I’m curious to know if my academic experience, especially research papers are treasure for perspective employers.

Do you think that after completing CFA and Phd I will be able to higher level job than intern/junior ?

Thanks in advance for advices.

I don’t know how other people will respond, but from my experience, the academic world and industry don’t cross paths very much.

I think it’s possible but it would be rare. If you were a brilliant PhD mathematics type, you could get a job at a quant fund (especially if you know how to program). Those credentials would be way overkill on the fundamental side though (such as a value investing hedge fund).

Thanks, guys.

I can see that there are some job adv that indicate they need only phd guys

eg.

http://jobs.efinancialcareers.co.uk/job-4000000000587660.htm/keywordAny=phd/

http://jobs.efinancialcareers.co.uk/job-4000000000571895.htm/keywordAny=phd/

There are relatively less people who are phd AND cfa. I hope this is my advantage.

Thank you.

Oh yes the exception are quants, true those positions want phd’s, but usually they want candidates in a strong math based phd like physics or statistics, and strong programming backgrounds

indeed, typically quants spend 2/3 of their time programming in C++

You might be a better fit for an economist position at a larger financial institution. Hedge funds are less likely to have room for extra PhD people with no practical experience.