Austin, TX

Are there good opportunities in Austin, TX? I’m looking to move there late summer/early fall, and I’m looking for a quant role. I have an advanced engineering degree from a top 10 school, and I just took LI. I know Austin isn’t a big financial hub, but I have been somewhat successful in finding scattered postings here and there. Anyone from the area or know of anything? I’m just beginning the search so any information would be helpful, like names of firms with offices in Austin, or websites that would have relevant job postings. Thanks!

UT endowment.

Check out the CFA Society down there.

my buddy just got hired out of bschool at the UT endowment

I live in Austin and am on the board of the CFA society and actually am responsible for the job listings on the society board…As of right now we have none. Most of the jobs here are Wealth Management related; however, there are some state jobs here with Texas Employees (ERS) and Teachers retirement systems (TRS). There is the UT endowment as previously mentioned. Dimensional Fund Advisors just moved here if you have a programming/quant background. Investco/Aim also has a small office here where I think they manage their international funds. There are a couple of hedge funds (Austin Atlantic, Third Coast, and La Fite) that I know of. As far as sell side research there isn’ much. Austin Stock research is a short-sell only shop and RBC has part of their energy team here. Tejas securities is here but I thik they are more distress debt focused. That is pretty much it from the insitutional side. Entry-Level & mid-level jobs are VERY competitive…For entry level jobs you are competing against everyone graduating from UT who wants to stay in Austin and work in investments and from what I can tell many people in Austin would rather hire a UT grad than a Wharton or Harvard grad. There are also a lot of engineers who work for a tech company for a few years and then due an MBA & the CFA and try to transition. However, there are a lot of instituional sales jobs and wealth managment positions in this area.

It’s Lafitte Capital…Hester Capital is another Austin based fund.

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I definitely think I have a great place to begin the search. RWannabeCFA, that is interesting about the preference for UT grads. How difficult is it to get a job from out of town? I currently live in Washington, DC, but my wife and I want to move to Austin at the end of the summer. Would it be difficult to get employers to take me seriously if they see a DC address on my resume/cover letter? Any chance I can get your e-mail address to continue this conversation? It would be great to have a CFA contact in Austin… Thanks again, everyone.

I don’t think it is extremely difficult to get a job from out of town but it is definately easier if you already live in the city/state when you start applying but I think this is true everywhere. The preference for UT grads tends to be focused towards positions where you are 0-3 years out of school and isn’t an absolute. I think it is driven by the fact that Texas is a different place to live and work than other financial centers and they figure if you went to UT you understand the culture and aren’t going to come into the organization and be disruptive. But if you have a strong resume and interview well then you should be o.k. I don’t like postig my e-mail on a forum like this but if you want to post yours I’ll shoot you an e-mail.

Austin Ventures is a good VC - but that is a different industry (and probably very hard to get a job there)

Great. All good to hear. RAwannabeCFA, my e-mail is… jmk52 at cornell dot edu Looking forward to hearing from you!