Uncompromising positions

The job Hedge-fund manager

Status: Call them sellouts, fratboys or eww, but dudes in suits make dough. Wall Street—i.e., “securities, commodity contracts and investments”—is the second-highest growth industry in New York, with 186,300 positions out there, according to the Department of Labor. And “salary levels have only increased over the last five years,” particularly in private equity and hedge funds, says Joe Goldsmith, founding partner of recruiting firm Prince Goldsmith. This year, three hedge-fund managers made more than $1 billion a year; a rookie with an M.B.A. can earn $100,000 in their first year.

The game plan: Turn a DeLorean into a time machine, go back and attend Yale. Because unless you went to a top university, “you can’t just walk in with your résumé and say, ‘Hey, I’m the shit,’ ” says Northwater Capital associate Chetan Raina, who works at a kind of “fund of hedge funds.” So get the names of fellow Humble U grads working in relatively smaller firms—such as Sandell Asset Management and Trafelet & Co.—from your alumni office and cold-call them. The big dogs only bet on Ivy names (“If everything goes wrong, the one who hired him can say, ‘What do you want, he went to Harvard!’ ” reasons Raina). Don’t get too assertive, though; while Joe Goldsmith is recruiting for the “next Goldman Sachs of the world,” he looks for “a high degree of emotional intelligence and a relative degree of introspection.” To start making connections, hit Ulysses on Stone Street, check out those ID tags and start chatting up hedge-funders. And don’t be afraid to start small and charm your way up. Raina says, “You actually can hang out on yachts with hedge-fund managers early in your career.”

The hookup: Goldsmith will look at your résumé and offer one lucky reader an interview, via timeoutnewyork.com/jobhookup. The first thing he looks for in a résumé: “I start with education,” he says definitively. (What did you expect, font style?) Grad degrees are a good bonus: M.B.A.’s, master’s, etc. Listing multiple short stints at tons of previous firms makes you look like a problem child, and don’t prattle on with “quirky” details about how you love to play snooker or have traveled to Bhutan. “People use the personal part, unfortunately, in a goofy, anecdotal way, and I don’t think it’s additive,” says Goldsmith. Save that stuff for your Match.com profile.—Allison Williams