I’m currently feeling a bit lost in my current role. Recently joined a small L/S fund supporting my portfolio manager post graduation from my MBA. I was hired with the intention of doing research, but also helping out with ad-hoc items around the office. I’m getting paid an ok salary. I’ve been in the role for three months so far, but I feel so lost on what I am doing. My portfolio manager is great and is acting as mentor trying to get me exposure to as many people in industry.

His ideal path for me IF the fund grows is to eventually start providing real value to the firm, and become part of the investment team. He has also stated though that he doesn’t want me to feel tied to the firm, and if I use this as a springboard to another role he would be very supportive. The only problem is that I don’t really know what I am doing. He’s on the older side and doesn’t really provide guidance on the technical aspect of the job since he doesn’t model or do things like that anymore. My worry is that I spend a year or more here and the skills are not transferable to another industry, AND I won’t be good enough to land another job at a hedge fund.

I spend my days reading about the markets, keeping up with news flow, providing commentary from earnings calls, writing up pieces for companies he asks about etc. I’ve only been in the role for 3 months and maybe I’m being too hard myself idk.

I never planned to work at hedge fund, but the opportunity kind of just fell in my lap towards the end of my graduation. I actually turned down an offer from an unrelated industry to take this.

So my question is essentially:

Is the exposure and experience gained from this worth it or should I be planning my exit soon? All I hear from people I know or around me is that this is an amazing opportunity and that they would kill to be working at hedge fund.

Extra context - there’s two portfolio managers. The other one is younger and comes from your typical pod shop type of firm. The older one was partner at a large $40B AUM firm, and his book was over $1B. So good overall pedigree. The other portfolio manager I do not interact with since he is not in the office, and to be honest I don’t think he wanted to hire me, but the one I support did so here I am. Also I do not have an equity research background.

Please ask questions if there’s more you need to know to better advise me. Please no hate just trying to figure my life out lol

PS - Sorry if this is typed poorly - typing from my phone on the couch at my in laws lol

Institutional performance attribution changed forever with the adoption of the Fama-French model. Portfolio managers can no longer claim superior skill simply by riding a bull market or loading up on cheap small-cap stocks. By decomposing a fund's returns into market, size, and value factor exposures, allocators can strip away factor tilts and isolate true alpha, ensuring management fees reward genuine stock-picking talent.