Jesse Marrus

Mutual funds may not be on a hiring spree right now, but Longboard Asset Management Portfolio Manager Cole Wilcox is seeing demand increase elsewhere.

Right now, hedge funds cannot technically advertise to anyone. They cannot solicit potential investors — they must find a way to cleverly (but legally) inspire accredited investors to come to them, ask questions, and hope they’ll stick around. It’s not an easy business by any means, but with the potential to make billions of dollars a year; enterprising individuals are frequently attracted to the industry.

"I think to just look at numbers on Wall Street and say, 'It looks like it's struggling' -- it's contracting in a very healthy way," said fomer Morgan Stanly Executive Bob Auer. "It's almost like a big fat guy that is losing weight. To say, 'Oh, he's just not the same guy…' No -- he's getting healthier and better."

While some men and women have left New York for a better life in Florida, there are other areas that are beginning to attract the financial community.

Last year, Congress passed the JOBS Act, a new bill designed to foster the growth of startups. Hedge funds were particularly excited about the bill because it was expected to allow the SEC to form new rules for the industry. Jesse Marrus writes, in the months since the bill was passed, little has come from the JOBS Act. Hedge funds are still waiting to hear from the SEC, and investors are still jumping through hoops.

Barclays recently announced that it planned to eliminate at least 3,700 jobs in 2013. This was sour news from an industry that had begun to back away from the heavy layoff days of 2011.

As many as two-thirds of organizations are said to be ineffective or inefficient in some capacity. Sometimes the inefficiencies are brought on by laziness -- other times they are the result of a massive corporate scandal.

Looking for that next career opportunity has changed. Long gone are the days of paper resumes. Today, you need to be innovative in order to be seen.

Now that the layoff era is finally over for Wall Street, large financial institutions are beginning to grow their teams again. But they are not the only ones that are on the lookout for fresh talent.

Where is the talent on Wall Street? According to Ram Ahluwalia, a former Senior Vice President at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, you might not find it in familiar places.

When people think of jobs on Wall Street, they often imagine a bunch of accountants, analysts, stockbrokers, mathematicians and other brainy types. But not everyone in the financial sector follows the same path.

Hedge funds are packing up and heading south. Is this a continuing trend or a brief part of the financial sector's ongoing evolution?

For several months hedge funds have been accused of luring top talent away from banks and other financial institutions. This is partially due to the fact that banks are not what they used to be; the salary, stability and bonus packages have greatly decreased. Hedge funds have been more than welcome to fill the void.

It's no secret that Citigroup has a workforce problem this holiday season. The company may not be planning to layoff as many people as Morgan Stanley did last year, but if the reports are accurate, the firm is not in hiring mode either. Or is it?

Few Wall Street professionals were thrilled about the implementation of Dodd-Frank and other forms of regulation. But it seems to have been a blessing for those who specialize in compliance.

Now that President Obama has been re-elected, Wall Street is weary of the future. How will the financial sector respond? When will it fully recover? Will the election results embolden regulators and inspire a greater degree of oversight? Will the President introduce new forms of regulation?

Many talented individuals are getting hired on Wall Street. But while it is great to hear that others are doing well, the first thing every job seeker wants to know is this: "How can I be one of them?"

How can someone break into finance without a proper degree? Use what is available. Donald E Conrad didn't intend to have a career in finance, but today he is the founder and president of Conrad Capital Management.

There are thousands of hedge funds competing in the marketplace. They come in all shapes and sizes, but all too often they approach investors with the same thesis.

PerTrac, a provider of analytics, reporting and communications software for investment professionals, released a new report this week detailing the success of hedge funds during years in which the entire sector posted negative performance results.