Hedge fund Balyasny’s 16,000 intern applicants will become 40 juniors
For many, the pinnacle of a career in financial services is at a hedge fund. It’s hard to beat the pay or working hours (and impossible to beat both), but it’s not easy to get in, unless you’re a top trader at an investment bank. Or you get an internship via a huge multi-strategy fund like Citadel, Point72, or maybe Balyasny Asset Management.
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Getting a hedge fund internship isn't easy, though. Citadel and Citadel Securities receive 200 applicants per place. Balyasny Asset Management (BAM) is similarly competitive. Only 80 or so interns will be joining Balyasny in summer 2025. Around 16,000 applied for these places, meaning that the firm had a 0.5% acceptance rate. While this is on a par with Citadel and Citadel Securities, it's more competitive than banks like Goldman Sachs (0.8%) or JPMorgan (0.9%).
Balyasny's offices in North America, Europe, and Asia will be hosting the interns. Most are STEM majors; 46% are undergrad students, 43% masters students, and the rest are PhDs. Of the 80 students joining the firm over the summer, just half are expected to “convert” their internship into a full-time role, or just 0.25% of the initial pool of applicants.
Some of Balyasny's methods for recruiting interns are interesting. Business Insider reported last month that the firm invited likely candidates to participate in a stock pitch, with a cash prize for the best three teams that participated. The top two teams are invited for internship interviews at the firm, which can be a significant shortcut to a job at the fund.
Hedge fund internships in general are a growing trend. It’s only the very biggest funds, such as Citadel, Millennium, and Balyasny that offer internships – and some of their peers, such as Renaissance Technologies, don’t offer internships at all.
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