In the following paragraphs, I am going to list out some ways that I have garnered hedge fund interviews, along with methods friends have as well. I believe these techniques work for most buyside organizations as well as sell-side in certain circumstances. Most people though want to get to the buyside and therefore I will tailor my remarks to that.

In my mind getting the hedge fund interview first requires finding where the jobs are. Compounding this problem is that fact that some funds are constantly interviewing people waiting to find the perfect gem. And if they do not find that one person that fits them perfectly, they will have gained a lot of diverse investment opinions. Why? Most of the first questions I get on hedge fund interviews (or buyside interviews): “What do you like in the market?”

If I were to narrow the techniques / methods for getting a hedge fund interview, here is what it would boil down to:

• Utilizing the Bloomberg JOBS function. If you have access to a Bloomberg (or if you do not, ask a friend), type in JOBS . This is a fantastic tool that in my opinion is underutilized because many people wanting the jobs do not have access to Bloomberg. I promise you: One of your friends will let you come into their office after hours and use his/her Bloomberg. You realistically only have to check it once a week for the type of job you are actively seeking. If you are looking for a distressed job make sure you are searching for the right things: high yield analyst, credit analyst, bankruptcy experience etc.
• After searching through the JOBS function, you write down the contact name / information for each possible job. Somethings these jobs are actually written up by the particular organization hiring and sometimes they are written up by headhunters. If they are written up by the fund / company hiring, what you want to do is survey ALL your contacts to see if they know someone at that fund. This is why Linked In is such a powerful tool (if you search hunter [at] distressed-debt-investing.com, you can find a Linked In profile I just start in order to help link readers). So let’s say your find a job posting that was put up by someone at Glenview Capital. From there you would search far and wide until you had a reasonable “in” at Glenview Capital. Maybe your best friend is a lawyer and he has done some work for the fund and knows a few people there. Maybe your neighbor’s nephew is in the IT department there. It doesn’t matter. The key is connecting with this contact and bringing up that you heard Glenview was hiring and asking, quite frankly really, how you can get your resume and case study in the door.
• If the JOBS posting was written up by a headhunter, your goal is to befriend / impress that headhunter like it is no tomorrow. Headhunter’s generally only send their best resumes / job seeker to the best funds. You have to convince these guys you are the smartest man/woman on earth. Further, you have to provide something of value to the headhunter: Other clients, i.e other funds / organizations that are looking to hire. Most people will have a contact here or there that is of value to these guys. Give a little / take a little. As you move up the short list on the headhunters radar, you will hopefully see a nice flow of jobs.
• So now lets say you have extinguished the Bloomberg JOBS function, and gotten no where with possible contact at funds or through a headhunter…what do you do? The easiest method is to go to one of your friends that has used a headhunter in the past, ask for an introduction, and see what he/she has cooking. Again, you need to give these people some sort of value and you need to impress them. If you have laid out your resume like I suggested, and worked and tightened up your case study, you should not have a problem. Build a rapport with this person so that when a particular job comes up (make sure you define exactly what you want), you will be the first name to come into their head.
• Let’s now go a little bit more extreme and say: You have no Bloomberg Access and know no one that has used a headhunter: Now you use your network by asking everyone you know who is hiring. And then you do as suggested above. You get a mutual contact to make an introduction to get your foot in the door. Just finding out Glenview is hiring and sending your resume to hr [at] glenview.com or whatever the email address may be will not work. It just won’t. I know it is easy but it will not work. Make sure when you have your resume forwarded, you also have your case study forwarded – this is essential.
• Finally, let’s say you have no access to Bloomberg, or no social network at all that might clue you in on who is hiring. This is where the bold “Cold Emailing” comes into play. A week or so ago I posted a number of hedge funds / buy side shops that would be particularly interesting places to work. Using the power of the Interweb, you should be able to back into 1) Who is in charge of said hedge fund / buy side shop and 2) How their email address are structured….i.e. First Name.Last Name @ XYZ fund or FirstLetterofFirstName + LastName @ ABC Fund etc. You then write mini-cover letters, attaching your resume and case study and send these babies out. If you are particularly interested in impressing, you could instead send handwritten letters to each of these people (with resume / idea printed out inside). These mini cover letters need to essentially say that you heard that the fund was possibly hiring (even if you had no clue if they were hiring), introduce yourself and the skills / competitive aspects your bring to the table, introduce your case study and close with saying you can contact me in the case they are indeed hiring. I know this is bold and possibly boisterous – but three of my friends work at some of the best hedge funds in the world via this technique.

You may be asking: “Hunter, what is the purpose of this? Why?” Just like when working on your hedge fund resumes, you need to distinguish and differentiate yourself. As noted in earlier posts, a hedge fund will receive 200 or 300 resumes for every one front-office job. If you present a resume in the fashion that I have layed out, AND add a case study on a particular investment you find PRESENTLY compelling, your chances are multiplied greatly that your resume will go in the “Follow Up” stack.

Now you may be saying to yourself: “But I don’t have any good investment ideas” And I respond: Well then, why do you want to go work for a hedge fund? I literally jot down five or six ideas everyday for future review – some I get to and some I don’t. But I am always looking to generate outsized returns for minimal risk. I want to turn over EVERY STONE possible for that one three or four bagger that no one has even heard of. I was at dinner with a hedge fund manager last week and I asked him, as I always do to everyone I know in this business: What are you looking at? He proceeded to tell me a situation that I had never even heard of that made so much sense it was scary. Those are the situations you want in your case study / investment memo – something that will make the hedge fund manager jump out of their seat and then demand that one of his/her analysts start looking at the company.

No one wants to hear about how you think Microsoft is inexpensive. No one cares that you think First Data’s bank debt is a steal. These are situations where marginally more information will give you limited edge. Plus, everyone is already talking about them.

Where can you find these ideas if you are not actively looking? There are so many places: SumZero, Value Investor Club, Silican Valley Investor, Bloomberg Message Runs, other buy-siders etc. After you have found an interesting, current idea (Has to be actionable TODAY AND it has to be tradeable, so no ultra-microcap with diminimus volume), it is time to start writing the idea up.

Here is my format, and do not take this as Holy Gospel, because I think many approaches work equally well:

• A large header, with the company’s name and the security for which you are recommending
• A three or four sentence thesis. If you cannot explain the idea rationally in three or four sentences, it probably is not compelling enough
• A break down of the capital structure
• An overview of the company
• Why the mispricing exists
• Anything particular pertinent to the thesis (think industry trends, covenant issues, recent results or announcements)
• A valuation and investment opinion
• Conclusion

I know a lot of you have asked for a sample hedge fund resume, specifically a hedge fund analyst resume. While I would love to post my own resume as a hedge fund resume example, that would blasphemy my anonymity. What I will do, is for the next few weeks, offer to look over any resume sent to me and give candid resume advice. Please allow a few days to respond. Eventually I will put together a few hedge fund analyst resume examples – whenever I get a free moment.

A real issue with asset management, especially today, is the sheer number of applicants for specific jobs. Cover letters, which is something we will eventually address (I for one have never used a cover letter), can help distinguish you from the crowd when trying to get a private equity job or a hedge fund job (I point these two out specifically as they are the most in demand – hedge fund employment is really the focus of this blog). A hedge fund manager only will give you a few seconds in glancing over your resume. While resume services promise to offer the best resume advice – I have yet to find one that addresses the fundamental question: Given 10 seconds of “glance time” how will you distinguish yourself as someone that can add value and generate an excess return on capital. Resume format aside, which maybe these services can help you with, the objective is to stand apart from the crowd and get placed in the “Call Back” pile.

A quick aside on hedge fund recruiting. At the fund level specifically. Smaller funds will either do it themselves or hire a hedge fund recruiter. Unfortunately many hedge fund recruiters will charge a hefty fee (I believe the industry average is approximately 1 year of salary) to place you. Hence, they will only show their best and brightest prospects to their clients to ensure placement and filter out the noise. Sometimes the hedge fund manager will review the resumes himself. This is an ideal situation. The larger funds do a combination of in-house, possibly outsourced to an HR department, or through hedge fund recruiting services. The best hedge funds have an extensive screening process (I just read a case study on Maverick Capital which alluded to the fact that new applicants meet everyone in the firm before being hired). Tough, tough, tough.

Now on to the resume building. First off, education.

Education matters. Pedigree is important, think Ivy League undergrad or strong MBA program. But it is not the be-all end all. I think any hedge fund manager viewing a resume of someone working at a very strong fund or prop desk would disregard a lackluster post-secondary school name.

Remembering our points for the first hedge fund resume post, you want to compare yourself and your accomplishments to other people. If your class was ranked, then add the rank (assuming you did ok). While you shouldn’t lie, if you were ranked 100th out of 500 in your class but 2nd out of 10th in your major, what do you think looks better? Always include your GPA, and especially include your major GPA if it is particularly strong.

As for placing your SAT scores on a resume…I am mixed on this one. I think after say 5 years of post graduate work it can be dropped unless you had a ridiculous score. Before that 5 year mark, I would include if you posted a 1400 or above. Otherwise, I think it is fine to leave it out.

So you got your school name, rank, GPAs and possibly your SAT score. The next thing you want to include is interesting extracurricular activities. Anything to do with an investment group in your college is especially helpful.

And be specific.

Do not say: Analyst for student run investment portfolio.

Say: Research analyst for 1 million dollar student investment portfolio. Presented 3 investment opportunities which cumulatively returned 55% over a three year period.

Other extracurricular activities that show 1) You are a team player (athletics) 2) You are a good communicator (writer for school paper) and 3) You give back to your community (any kind of interesting community service) are good additions to the resume. As always: Be specific. Compare yourself and your accomplishments to others. You are, in one perspective or the other, better than most at certain things…you just have to frame it correctly. If this sounds deceitful, then you do not understand selling.

One other factor you may want to put into education are very catchy class titles related to your profession. For example, if you went to Columbia’s business school, stating that you took the Blue Ridge Capital class or Joel Greenblatt’s class would win you points undoubtedly. If you took a valuations course in undergrad I think that would also be a good addition.

At this point, you should have a pretty full resume. You have prior experience, detailed with previous investments. You have education, touting aspects of your past which frame you as the best. Now you need something that will help you be remembered: Interests.

Before moving on to that, what about skills? Again a toss-up. Anyone applying to a front office hedge fund job knows how to use Excel and Bloomberg. I think the few lines that you use for skills could be used for another investment example which could state how you used excel and Bloomberg in the investment. A few ways to skin a cat there.

Back to interests. You tell me which resume you were more likely to remember:

Resume #1: Interests include: Fishing, Golf, Skiing.

Resume #2: Interests include: Pacific Deep-Water Fishing; Competitive Golf; Artic Heli–Skiiing.

Obviously, that example is a little goosed. You should get the point. I have a friend that knows more about wine that most sommeliers. One of his interests on his resume: Chilean Red Wines. Do the fund managers think he is a drunk? Possibly. But how many of those hedge fund managers have been to Chile and had drank the fantastic red wines down there? I would say at least 25%. 25% of the people reading the resume will have a favorable sensory experience l
inking my friend and they will remember him undoubtedly.

But what if you don’t have any interest? Please. Stop selling yourself short. Be creative. If all you do is sit at home and watch Wheel of Fortune and play Suduku: Interests: Competitive word challenges and expert timed-Sudoku. Am I lying in either of those phrases?

The point this exercise, including the hedge fund resume tips from part 1…Distinguish yourself. Present yourself as a driven, interesting, competitive person who will win when pressure is on. Even if you do not have investing experience, these characteristics are pretty much universal throughout this community. Prove that you belong and more often you will be getting the interview. After that, its a whole new ball game – but at least you have a fighting chance. Stay tuned for more tips on how to get a hedge fund job in the coming weeks.

Schools of thought aside, I want to lay out a practical guide / system, that will increase your chances of getting the hedge fund interview. Of course, this is not a full proof, shoot the lights out, get every job interview you apply for, system. Nothing is a magic bullet. You may have the best resume on the Street, and a fund manager could have just been short squeezed to hell in the PAH3/VOW trade, and your golden ticket resume is now in the trash. Do not take it personally.

I am going to focus in on what I think is the most effective layout of a hedge fund resume. The details will be up to your experience (in and out of the market), your background, etc. At this point, do not worry about formatting or if a 10pt font is better than a 12pt font. In the end, that is not going to matter. As long as the formatting is not blinding to the eye, and uniform in nature, you should be ok.

At this point, you should have your name / contact information at the top of your resume. The next section will be the career section. Studies have shown you have an average of 10 seconds to please the eye of the reader of your resume. In other words, you can’t screw this up.

In my opinion, the best way to lay out your hedge fund resume “career section” can be summarize as such:

1. You want a very concise, maybe 2 sentence description of your job responsibilities. Make it understandable, and as I said concise – especially in the cases where your job responsibilities are self evident. Everyone knows what an investment banking analyst does. Maybe you need more description if you are a basis trader at a global financial institution. Nonetheless, keep it tight.
2. Follow that, with a number of bullet points. Now these are not any old bullet points (in other words bland, vanilla, or unappealing). This is where you need to showcase that you are the best. I am reading an interesting book right now on Julian Robertson and his Tiger Cubs (you can find the book here: Julian Robertson: A Tiger in the Land of Bulls and Bears). A point the author constantly makes about Julian Robertson is how competitive he is. This is what hedge fund managers love. Supposedly, Ricky Sandler of Eminence Capital fame, hires lots of athletes for this sole reason. Investing is intellectually challenging. You have to prove you can cut it. So how do you do that? By comparing your successes to others. What sounds better? “Completed investment banking tasks including building financial modeling, conducting on-site company due diligence, and preparing investor presentation materials.” or “Ranked highest among my investment banking class in regards to building financial models, conducting on-site company due diligence, and preparting investor presentation materials.”
3. More bullet points, comparing you to your peers. If you have no peers to compare yourself to, start quantifying your accomplishments, and compare them to some benchmark. For example: “Performed due diligence and submitted buy recommendations to the trading desk. Over the 18 months at XYZ bank, these recommendations returns 25% on an annualized basis versus a 5% return for the S&P.;” Hedge fund managers like numbers. Show them, when it comes to numbers, you cannot be beaten.
4. I know the general consensus is to not use buzzwords. While I agree, where is the line drawn? Is “Hidden Catalyst” a buzzword? How about instead of calling them buzz words, we call them, “Hey…look at me words/phrases.” You want to pepper these into this section. If you have a subscription to Value Investor Insight, these are ALL OVER the place in there. For example, from the most recent issue: “margin of safety”, “prudent and proven management teams”, “trough margins and normal business cycles.” And that is only from the first 1.5 pages.
5. Here is the most crucial part. After, you have your job description(s) and bullet points in place, you need to display a list of investments / situations you have worked on in the past in which you were wildly successful. Do not lie about these investments. How do you do this? After your last bullet point, you want to have a sub-section entitled something like “Past Investing Situations” or something to that effect. Under that sub-section, you want to list 2 or 3 investments that have worked out for you. There needs to be a story to the investment. And the story cannot be “Asset was trading at 5x EBITDA when comps were trading at 9x”…anyone can run a screen. How about this: “Sept 2008: Short Copper: After a global mine-by-mine analysis of worldwide mine capacity and production, it became clear that the price of copper was unsunstainable due to a drop-off in worldwide demand combined with excess stock-piling at Asian and Australian ports in the 3Q2008. Position was put on via XYZ method at ABC price, and closed at DEF price, resulting in a gain of some percentage.” If that were true (and some readers I know, did that exact analysis), it is an incredibly powerful statement. Plus, if you did get the interview, you would know some much about copper, it would knock their socks off.