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People love quantitative hedge funds. In our Ideal Employer survey of the top hedge funds, quant
funds - or funds with a quantitative approach occupy many of the positions in the top 10.

The funds in the two top slots are not pure quant funds, however. Ken Griffin's Citadel runs quant
strategies and has been stocking up on quant hires and artificial intelligence expertise, but it uses
fundamental research and "experienced judgement" alongside its quantitative analytics. Ray Dalio's
Bridgewater Associates is a global macro fund that underpins fundamental research with quant
insights. Citadel and Bridgewater ranked first and second respectively both this year and last year.
The two clearly have enduring appeal for the top talent in the industry.
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Accounting & Finance (3138)

Asset Management (2256)
Citadel's selling point is pay. The fund received the highest percentage of votes in our survey (89%
and 90% respectively) for its perceived high salaries and high bonuses. People want to work for Ken Compliance/Legal (1321)
Griffin because - they think - he pays well. Credit (738)

They may not be too far wrong. Griffin himself earned an estimated $1.7bn last year and went out FX & Money Markets (229)
shopping for the most expensive home in Chicago with his spare cash. The average Citadel Information Technology (4259)
employee evidently earns considerably less than Ken, but pay per head at Citadel's London unit was
Investment Banking/M&A (1711)
$666k for 2016 (the last year for which pay is available), making it one of the most remunerative
hedge funds in the UK. There are downsides to working for Citadel - top employees are famously Operations (1855)
tied in with two-year non-competes which keep them out of the market if they try to leave - but people Private Equity & Venture Capital (413)
are clearly prepared to overlook this with an eye to their bottom line.
Risk Management (1763)
At Bridgewater Associates meanwhile, boss Ray Dalio will be pleased to hear that Bridgewater out- Sales & Marketing (965)
ranks the rest as a desirable employer thanks to its perceived "strong executive leadership." Dalio
Trading (408)
and his managerial team were voted as strong leaders by 83% of our respondents who wanted to
work there (compared to a vote of 63% for Griffin and his team at closest rival Citadel). Dalio is well view all >>
known for his doctrine of "radical transparency" based on more than 200 rules or "Principles" derived
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from his life experiences. Employees at Bridgewater are expected to adhere to the doctrine, which
means being "radically truthful" and operating on the basis of "total straightforwardness." They are Job title or keywords
also given an iPad app to rate each other's performance in meetings. This can cause issues: co-
chief investment officer Eileen Murray said this month that Bridgewater's culture is not for everyone
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and that the turnover rate at Bridgewater is twice as high as elsewhere. Even so, plenty of people
clearly approve. It helps that Bridgewater ranks highly for its perceived pay, too.
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Behind Bridgewater, quant fund Two Sigma is also perceived as generous to its employees. As we
reported today, this is correct to the extent that Two Sigma paid its average London employee $400k
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for 2017 (albeit $200k less than Citadel paid a year earlier). Two Sigma is also ranked highly for
"office environment" (its offices have recording studios and ping pong tables) and for comparatively Keywords or phrase Search
manageable working hours.

Another pure quant fund, Renaissance Technologies, comes in behind Two Sigma. Known for
making its heavy-smoking 79 year-old founder Jim Simons extravagantly rich (he's worth
$18.5bn) RenTec has a reputation in the market as a nice place to work that hires highly eccentric
and exceptionally brilliant people. "My management style has always been to find outstanding people
and let them run with the ball,” Simons told the New Yorker last year. "I was a good mathematician,”
he added, “I wasn’t the greatest in the world, but I was pretty good.” The way Simons told it, he made
RenTec seem fun: bonding exercises at the fund involved seeing who could ride a bike the slowest
without falling off.

None of this has exactly fed through to Renaissance Technologies' current employer brand: people
told us they want to work there because it pays well, because it's perceived to be an innovator in the
industry, with great financial performance and challenging work. Simons isn't at RenTec anymore, but
people might want to ask about the bike rides all the same.

In fifth place comes Point72 asset management, the former family office-turned hedge fund
accepting outside money run by "legendary investor" and former domestic pig owner, Steve Cohen.
Point72 is also ranked highly on pay (a member of the HR team was on target to earn over $500k in
2018), but it particularly out-performs rivals for its perceived "challenging and interesting work." The
fund is known for using statistical analysis to support its fundamental research; this clearly appeals.

eFinancialCareers Ideal Employer Hedge Fund Top 10

2018 Rank ▼ 2017 Rank Name

1 1 Citadel

2 2 Bridgewater Associates

3 4 Two Sigma Investments

4 6 Renaissance Technologies

5 8 Point 72 Asset Management

6 6 Man Group

7 5 AQR Capital Management

8 — D.E. Shaw & Co.

8 14 Oaktree Capital Management

8 8 Brevan Howard

8 12 Millennium Partners

Source: eFinancialCareers • Get the data •Embed

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

View the complete 2018 Ideal Employer Rankings

 & Follow @MadameButcher eFinancialCareers
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Related articles
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by Sarah Butcher 08 March 2017

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