19 April , 2012
When I talk to customers that have signed up to work with our buy-side interview prep services, I try to instill in them that the interview process is really a long, sometimes drawn out, sales pitch. You are selling your skills and talents and hoping the buyer (the hedge fund or buy side organization) thinks he will get more value from you than what you cost. What is valuable to a hedge fund? How does a hedge fund make money. Let’s break it down as simply as possible: Management fees which is based on AUM Performance fees, or carry, which …
Read More9 December , 2011
Here is my updated list of Julia Robertson’s Tiger Cubs…If anyone has any additions, please email me at hunter [at] distressed-debt-investing [dot] come Tiger Management – Julian Robertson Blue Ridge Capital – John Griffin Bridger Management – Roberto Mignone Valinor Management – David Gallo Maverick Capital – Lee Ainslie Highside Capital Management – Lee Hobson Impala Asset Management – Robert Bishop Viking Global Investors – Andreas Halvorsen Tiger Eye Capital – Benjamin Gambill Hoplite Capital – John Lykouretzos Touradji Capital – Paul Touradji Lone Pine Capital – Stephen Mandel White Elm Capital – Matthew Iorio Conatus Capital – David Stemerman …
Read More5 January , 2011
One of the first questions I like to ask clients when starting to work them with our hedge fund resume service is “What are you trying to accomplish with this resume?” More often that not, the resumes I see being sent to recruiters as well as those I see on my desk when hiring for positions internally, can be summarized as paper full of a bunch of activities and duties you did at previous jobs. In my mind, this is not the way to approach a resume targeted to getting a buy side job. What question will a hedge fund manager …
Read More10 November , 2010
Later this week, we are officially launching a service to help hedge fund candidates and applicants to tailor their resumes and beef up their case studies so they can move forward to their goals of attaining a job at a hedge fund. Stay tuned!
Read More3 October , 2010
To start, I would like to open up my commentary to not solely hedge fund jobs, but also to the more general, “buy side jobs.” I will lop all research analysts, traders, and portfolio managers at mutual funds, insurance companies, endowments, etc into this category. In my opinion, for many of you looking to make the jump to a hedge fund career and are having difficulty, you might want to start looking for the more general buy side jobs and then making the switch 2 years down the line. When I pull up the JOBS function on Bloomberg, and look for …
Read More28 July , 2010
A question I often get asked when candidates are applying to various buy side positions (including hedge fund jobs) is whether it is better to come from a generalist background, whether that be product group from an investment bank (i.e. leveraged finance) or from a specific industry group, whether that be on the banking or research side. In my opinion it really depends on what kind of hedge fund you want to join / be a part of. A lot of the smaller funds rely on generalists to cover a lot of industries. These people will have a very good …
Read More28 June , 2010
I often get asked, “Hunter – what are typical hedge fund interview questions for XYZ fund.” Now, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on whose vantage point you are coming at it from), I have not interviewed at all funds out there. And I know each fund has a different set of interview questions for different candidates. For example, I know of one fund that literally asked probability questions throughout the entire interview process for one candidate, and then barely asked any for another candidate friend of mine. Alas, I do not have a silver bullet. But when I am in the …
Read More19 April , 2010
First of all, thank you to all readers who have sent me emails over the past few months. We are lucky to have such a strong readership. Secondly, I wanted to announce that I have begun development on a new layout / format for the site which will combine hedge fund and buy-side interview, resume and career tips, as well as a number of articles myself and a few colleagues have penned over the past few months. If you would like to contribute, please contact me at hunter@ distressed-debt-investing.com. Finally, we are looking for one or two advertisers to partner …
Read More21 March , 2010
…you should probably also know how to set one up as well as a hedge fund’s basic structure. The world wide web yet again comes up strong in a INCREDIBLE document from www.howardrice.com which I have embedded below. On any hedge fund interview, you may want to have these things in the back of your mind so you know what you are getting yourself into. Enjoy! Some Considerations in Setting Up a Hedge Fund — Client Introductory Article (1) http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf
Read More1 March , 2010
Hey guys – wanted to give you all a heads up that we have set up a new merger/risk arbitrage investing blog: You can visit the blog here: Merger Arbitrage Investing. Enjoy!
Read More31 January , 2010
This is the final series in our posts on hedge fund interviews. In this post, we will talk about the “take-home” case study offered at many hedge funds. As discussed in our last post about hedge fund case studies done at the office, sometimes a fund or other buy-side shop will ask the prospective analyst to do both an at home case study and an in-office case study. In a way this is an advantage as you will be able to showcase your talents in prep work and on the fly. For this post though, we will be exclusively talking …
Read More2 January , 2010
This is the third edition of our series on hedge fund interviews. For part 1 and part 2 of the series: Hedge Fund Interviews Part 1 Hedge Fund Interviews Part 2 This post will discuss probably the most crucial part of the entire interview process: the final case study. This case study will either be “in-office” or prepared at home. This post we are going to focus in on the in-office case study, and for the final post of the series, we will discuss the take-home case study. In-office case studies: This is where the hedge fund or buy-side institution …
Read More23 November , 2009
In our last post, we talked about the first round of a hedge fund interview. This post assumes you have made it to the second or third round of the interview processes (i.e. your hedge fund resume has already been finely scrutinized). I have heard of funds that go five or six rounds and others that go three rounds (first round = intro, second round = more intense, third round = case study). Nonetheless, the rounds following the first “meet and greet” round will be much more intensive challenging both your intellect and your ability to get along with others …
Read More19 October , 2009
This is going to be the first part in a series of posts on the in’s and out’s of interviewing at a hedge fund – more specifically, what actually goes on during a hedge fund interview. Oftentimes, I get emails asking what sort of hedge fund interview questions to expect or if I have any hedge fund interview tips. A hedge fund interview is really a series of interviews. This post assumes that you have made it past the resume filtering stage and that you have an interview scheduled and ready to go. If you remember if a previous post, …
Read More17 September , 2009
Now that you have your hedge fund resume in hand and prepared your hedge fund case study, it is time to work on getting a hedge fund interview (or buyside interview for that matter). Unfortunately, this is where a lot of the guessing games come in to play. As noted before, if your resume and case study get in front of a certain portfolio manager, and that portfolio manager is having a bad day your shot for getting an interview has just got down. It has nothing to do with you and importantly, throughout this process, you should not take …
Read More7 September , 2009
I get a number of emails a day asking: “What are the good buy-side shops?” I already detailed a number of them in the Julian Robertson’s Tiger Cubs. Now getting a hedge fund job or moving from banking to a hedge fund career or going to a value investing mutual fund … the thing that matters is you go work for someone you can learn from. I know pedigree matters. I do. I know it helps in fund raising. But working for a repected value manager always opens doors. Here is a list of funds I think a potential hedge …
Read More25 August , 2009
Now that you have polished off your hedge fund resume we move on to one of the more overlooked essentials to getting in the door for a hedge fund interview: the hedge fund case study. You may be puzzled: Isn’t the case study the final step in the hedge fund interview process? Theoretically, yes. But, what I am talking about here simply a written up investment idea that you attach with your resume whenever send it out. You may be asking: “Hunter, what is the purpose of this? Why?” Just like when working on your hedge fund resumes, you need …
Read More5 August , 2009
In our first post on hedge fund resumes, we covered the “Previous Work Experience” portion of the hedge fund resume (or any front office resume for that matter). This entry will cover the balance of the resume which should generally include education and interests. Some hedge fund recruiters believe that you should include an objective / mission statement / introductory blurb about yourself. Generally this blurb is filled with MBA buzzwords. I believe this exercise is futile and would skipped over by a hedge fund manager for the real meat. I know a lot of you have asked for a …
Read More14 July , 2009
Before we move on to networking, getting the hedge fund interview, building a case study (my form of a cover letter), etc, we need to build the hedge fund resume. This is part #1 in a Two-Part Series. 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 …
Read More6 July , 2009
A while back a reader asked me what hedge funds would he recommend to start his hedge fund career? Now, at risk on fan boyism, I suggest any of the Tiger Cubs (of Julian Robertson fame). For those not in the know, Tiger Management Version 1.0, i.e Julian Robertson’s original hedge fund spawned a number of fantastic hedge fund managers that have racked up impressive returns. Tiger Management Version 2.0, housed at 101 Park Avenue, is a number of fund that Julian has seeded. Some are still small and some are very large. And a number of them have been …
Read More3 July , 2009
Some of you have been sending me emails, saying: Why are you starting a blog about hedge fund careers? Well, admittedly, I only intend to write a few posts on this blog and then whenever someone asks me how to break into the industry or how to garner hedge fund employment, I can simply point them to the blog. Plus, I like writing, there isn’t as much to do in the distressed market right now (GO GREEN SHOOTS GO!), and the more people I can help out the better. Now, I started my hedge fund career when I was younger. …
Read More30 June , 2009
One of the principles that I tell my friends when they ask me how to get a hedge fund job is thus: There are two ways to become a hedge fund analyst: 1. Get lucky or 2. Use your network. Now, you may be asking: Why would I be reading this blog if those were the only two ways to get a hedge fund job. Or better yet: Why would this nut job be writing about a topic that is effectively worthless? First of all, I am going to show you a few ways to really work your network (no …
Read More30 June , 2009
In response to a number of queries from my more popular blog, I have decided to start a blog on how to get a hedge fund job. Why do you ask? Well, for two reasons: 1) To maintain distinct brands (this one employment and the other blog case studies) and 2) Because I have a lot of people asking me (friends and readers a like) on the best way to break into the hedge fund industry and get a hedge fund job. To familiarize my readers, I have worked at three distinct funds at this point in my career. Prior …
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