I have a phone interview with a PM at a credit fund next week and have a few questions: 1. This will be the first interview. However, I know that it will be not just behavioral type questions, but primarily technical ones. In your experience, is it better to be very straightforward (i.e., simply answering the questions asked in a very professional manner) or somewhat laid back (i.e., creating more of a dialogue with the interviewer) for these type of interviews? This is the first phone interview I’ve had in awhile. I feel that I’m typically good at discerning the type of person I’m dealing with in a face-to-face interview and, as a result, know when to open up a bit and make it more of a conversation rather than an interview. Any suggestions on whether or not I should begin asking general questions to get the interview going, or if it would be better to just wait until the end? 2. This particular fund is a hedge fund, and is quite secretive. Any general guidelines on what types of questions shouldn’t be asked? I was planning to inquire about AUM and performance. Is that fine? 3. Any additional advice on how to best handle this type of interview would be very much appreciated! Thanks!
EMHdenied Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have a phone interview with a PM at a credit > fund next week and have a few questions: For your first question, I have had good luck ‘telling a story’ within the question. For instance I was asked “How do banks make money?” Obviously this is a very involved question. I began by talking about typical savings and loan operations (even jokingly inputted the 3-6-3 rule), fees, talked about various small business services, then moved on to commercial lending leading and finally into private equity lending and so forth. I was interviewing in the investment analyst position for the bank’s private equity sector. It was easier to tell a story about banking operations vs just lend money to customers and businesses. While I did not get an offer for this job, I don’t think it had to do with my competence regarding how things worked. You’ll need to feel it out. A question like, “What is an ROA ratio?” would be real straight forward. A question like “What should I look for in a in a small cap value stock?” is a lot more involved and open to interpretation. > 1. This will be the first interview. However, I > know that it will be not just behavioral type > questions, but primarily technical ones. In your > experience, is it better to be very > straightforward (i.e., simply answering the > questions asked in a very professional manner) or > somewhat laid back (i.e., creating more of a > dialogue with the interviewer) for these type of > interviews? This is the first phone interview I’ve > had in awhile. I feel that I’m typically good at > discerning the type of person I’m dealing with in > a face-to-face interview and, as a result, know > when to open up a bit and make it more of a > conversation rather than an interview. Any > suggestions on whether or not I should begin > asking general questions to get the interview > going, or if it would be better to just wait until > the end? Do not ask about the holdings. Asking about the strategy implemented (Global Macro, Long/Short, Arbitrage, etc), performance, and AUM should be fine. AUM may be touchy though. Likewise it may not be a bad idea to ask about the employees you may potentially be working with (backgrounds, credentials, etc). I would assume many are participating in the CFA program or hold another advanced degree. This gives you a way to identify, relate to, and already bond to whom you may be working with. > 2. This particular fund is a hedge fund, and is > quite secretive. Any general guidelines on what > types of questions shouldn’t be asked? I was > planning to inquire about AUM and performance. Is > that fine? Be cheerful! Make sure you are in a quiet area. Personally I have done phone interviews outside of the office suite on the buildings main level. While I got asked to come in for a sit down interview following, I don’t think they were pleased with the background noise. Likewise it may not be a bad idea to do it on speakerphone near a computer so you have the ability to Google if need be. > 3. Any additional advice on how to best handle > this type of interview would be very much > appreciated! Thanks! Good luck!
- I would use the STAR approach. As annoying as that is…it works wonders in crafting a story when you have appropriate guidelines: Situation, Task, Action, Result. If I were you, I would practice a few of these and make sure you have concrete answers for some basic behavioral and finance questions such as 3 strengths, weaknesses, etc 2. Would ask questions that show you have basic knowledge of the firm and build from there. Would ask about AUM and the team structure, etc. Def don’t ask about any recent client withdrawals from the fund. 3. Personally, I stand up and talk on the phone in those situations. It projects your voice more and you sound energetic, etc. Also, make sure you have your resume in front of you and cheat sheets if needed. Being near a computer is also a good idea, but I think the interviewer may hear you typing, etc. Good Luck with the phone interview!
I can’t imagine interviewing for a fund without asking for at least the general outline of their strategy. You don’t need to know what positions they hold (though maybe you’d want to in order to gauge if they are about to blow up), but you would want to ask about how they go about making their investment decisions. You also want to ask about what they find are the most important parts of the investment process. Obviously you can’t screw up on any part, but some feel that their most important part is managing risk exposure; for others it’s uncovering undervalued assets that others miss; for others, it’s having a better or faster optimization model; for others it’s access to unique (hopefully legal) information sources; for still others it’s taking advantage of some regulatory loophole or financial product they have special access to. Use this information to ask how your job fits into that process and what they think the most important characteristic is for your job. Don’t be afraid to go and ask about that. Of course you need to show that you are capable of doing all parts of the investment process that one would expect, given your background, experience, and resume, but it’s useless to talk about how great you are at uncovering value in 10K footnotes when they see their main advantage as coming out of their optimization model. Once you know how their process operates and where they think the value comes from, you’ll have a better idea of how you can contribute to it, and a better idea of how to sell yourself.
How was the interview?
I don’t think he had it yet. He said the interview was next week.
Ugh, long day. For some reason I thought the interview was today. I need to go to bed. In any case, I’m interested to hear how it goes.