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.

• 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
• Shumway Capital Partners (Chris Shumway)
  • Suranya Capital Partners – Anu Murgai
  • JAT Capital – John Thaler
• Toscafund – Martin Hughes
• Second Curve Capital – Tom Brown
• Coatue Capital Management – Philippe Laffont
• Ridgefield Capital Management – Robert Ellis
• Discovery Capital Management – Rob Citrone
• Longhorn Capital Partners – Kris Kristynik
• Healthcor – Arthur B Cohen
• Pantera Capital Management – Dan Morehead
• Millgate Capital – James Lyle
• Intrepid Capital Management – Steve Shapiro
• Argonaut Capital Management – David Gerstenhaber
• Elmwood Advisors – Quinn Riordan
• Deerfield Capital – Arnold Snider
• Duff Capital Advisors – Philip Duff
  • North Sound Capital (Rolled into Duff Capital) – Tom McAuley
• Joho Capital – Robert Karr
• Roundrock Capital Management – Peter Vig
• Speedwell – Fuyuki Fujiwara
• Williamson McAree Investment Partners – Ed McAree & Robert Williamson
• Asian Century Quest – Brian Kelly
• Sun Valley Gold – Peter Palmedo
• Cascabel Management – Scott Sinclair
• Light Street Capital – Glen Kacher
• Sureview Capital – John Wu

Tiger Management v 2.0

• Tiger Global – Chase Coleman
• Tiger Asia – Bill Hwang
  • Kylin Management – Ted Kang
• Tiger Shark Management – Tom Facciola & Michael Sears
• Tiger Consumer – Patrick McCormack
• Tiger Veda – Manish Chopra
• Torrey Pines Capital Management – Robert Jafek
• Fox Point Capital Management –Charles Anderson
• Axial Capital Management – Eliav Assouline
• Miura Global Management – Pasco Alfaro
• WRA Investment – William Araskog
• Hound Partners – Jonathan Auerback
• Goshen Investments – Christopher Burns
• Apos Capital Management – Alok Agrawal
• Centurion Global – Michael Popow
• DLH Capital Management – Rodrigo Andrade
• Eastern Advisors – Scott Booth
• Emerging Sovreign Group – J Kevin Kenny Jr
• Firemark Advisors – Michael Morrissey
• Kelusa Capital – RJ McCreary
• Lanexa Global Management – Ian Murray
• Maple Leaf Partners – Dane Andreef
• Pelagic Capital – McAndrew Rudisill
• Venesprie Capital Management – Quincy Fennebresque
• Steadfast Capital – Robert Pitts
• Marble Arch Investments – Tim Jenkins
• Japan Advisory – Edward Brogan
• Plural Investments – Matt Grossman

Now, I started my hedge fund career when I was younger. I won’t specify the age, but I didn’t serve the full tenure at a banking program if that gives you an idea. What attracted me? Well a hedge fund salary (or better yet a hedge fund analyst salary) is higher than an investment banking analyst (and sometimes associate). Now did I sell out by taking the higher hedge fund pay? Of course I did. AND…I did not have to continue working 80-100 hours a week. That was the real reason I joined the buy side.

Hedge fund employment (or even hedge fund internships) are the sexy want of all investment banking and MBA students alike. Why? Maybe it is the pay. Maybe it is the allure. Maybe, like for me, it was the ability to have some semblance of work life balance. The hedge fund industry, for whatever reason, attracts some of the brighest talents and mind in the world. I once told my wife that if all hedgies had instead become scientists, we would of cured cancer, walked on Mars, eliminated poverty, etc. She completely agreed.

Now, you are more than often, going to start out as a hedge fund analyst. There are many paths to become a hedge fund analyst. Let me just list some of the previous professions that friends of mine have engaged in before become a hedge fund analyst:

1. Leverage finance analyst / associate / vp … particular favorite among my distressed debt investing friends.
2. Sell side publishing or desk analyst
3. Generalist investment banking analyst / associate / vp / director…I actually have never met an MD that made the jump
4. Newspaper / Magazine journalist (two of them to be exact)
5. Medical Doctor (Michael Burry, one of my “heroes” for lack of a better term, finished med school before starting out on his own with Scion Capital…Google that one will ya!)
6. A friend came from an actuarial job and is CRUSHING it
7. Lawyer (all sorts of types)
8. Broker salesman (Dan Loeb used to work for Jefferies as a salesman)
9. Architect
10. Military (actually quite a few)
11. Many people from bank credit analyst jobs
12. One or two accountants