By Neil Wilson
A decade ago, it’s doubtful many students, if any, from top universities around the world would have contemplated a career in the hedge fund industry. Back then, hedge funds were widely viewed as an insignificant cottage industry – a sideshow to the main action in the financial world, and on the wilder fringes, too. Most students looking into finance would have been exploring opportunities at the big institutional firms in banking, brokerage or asset management and would hardly have given a second thought to the idea of a career in the “cowboy” world of hedge funds.
Just how much things have changed in the decade since was emphasized to me by a top-quality event put on in London this January by the student union body of the London School of Economics. This was only the second year...