Set up an account with Interactive Brokers. Use their API. Write some basic quant algos to get your feet wet (like VWAP, Bollinger Bands, etc.). Use Python.. it's what many quants use.
Get 25K together (FINRA minimum) and TRUST YOUR ALGOS WITH YOUR REAL MONEY. Paper trading is ok for test, but you need to feel the heat when the market moves against you. That experience is worth its weight in gold. I can't stress this enough... you won't learn if you don't have skin in the game. How can you expect a hedge fund to trust their money with your algo if you don't trust it yourself??? A quant needs an education... and he has to pay for it.
Also, read the two referenced books.
That's what I did to get into the hedge fund community.
http://interactivebrokers.github.io/tws-api/