[hapaboii]

Mdouglass,

First ask yourself why you want to be a researcher/analyst(this is vague, but I'm assuming you are referring to equities) and why you want to work at a hedge fund(again, here i'm assuming you mean a long/short equity fund that makes its investment decisions mostly from fundamental analysis) . Be honest with yourself about this. Do you know what the job entails? Have you also looked at other jobs in finance(there are so many choices..)?

Anyway, imho you are going to have a very tough time finding a gig. The problem with most hedge funds is that they either a) do not recruit people lacking relevant experience or b) recruit kids straight out of u-grad(from top schools). Same applies for investment banks.

Entry-level research analyst positions at hedge funds are going to attract sell-side research analysts and investment bankers looking to make the jump to the buyside. A lot of these guys slave away(unhappily) for 2-4 years on the sell-side hoping to get a shot at PE, VC, or a hedge fund. Their skills can be put to immediate use.

Unfortunately, a lot of things are going against you. You are competing against guys who have previous research or banking experience, while you don't. You are a few years out of school and so you'll lose the advantages of new grad recruiting. You don't have a stellar GPA and you didn't go to a top ivy.

On the bright side, as others have mentioned, you will greatly improve your chances by networking. Getting your resume in front of a bank MD or fund manager isn't enough. And certainly, HR is going to screen you out(sorry, this is the reality). You need to network to the point of having someone help you actually land an interview. I think if you can secure an interview, then it provides you the opportunity to really wow a fund manager or hiring manager, etc.

Lastly, I suggest you consider careers in trading. You majored in math(I assume you must like it somewhat and be okay at it), you play poker. Traders care less about your pedigree(though HR will still screen out most candidates before the trader ever interviews you/reviews your resume) and more about your potential to make them or the firm money. The world of trading is huge. So many different financial products to trade, so many different functions of trading(market making, prop, sales trading/execution trading, execution algo development, automated systems trading, floor trading(this is dying though), etc). Given your background, I can say it will be a lot easier to land a trading gig(usually this means starting out as an assistant trader fetching coffee, printing out position and p&l reports, etc).

As an aside, we had a bloomberg analytics guy in our office today. Chatted a bit and he mentioned he used to be an MM on the PCX(before Arca bought em and before NYSE bought Arca, now I think PCX is just known as NYSE Arca Holdings or something lame). He worked for Cutler Group(I'd consider them a quality options MM up there with Susq), claims that his "interview" was playing texas hold'em. I know the guys at Susq are big into poker also, you might try them if you are interested. I think a few of them are on the forums.

Good luck.