Viceroy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I once had an interview for a Hedge Fund, it was a > pretty humbling experience. > > A Hedge Fund is a rather blanket term. > Why don’t you tell us what kind of investments > interest you / what kind of Hedge Funds you would > want to work for ? What happened during the interview? What is your background?
To the OP, just go work for Tewksbury. They’ll hire anyone.
SuperiorReturn Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Viceroy Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I once had an interview for a Hedge Fund, it was > a > > pretty humbling experience. > > > > A Hedge Fund is a rather blanket term. > > Why don’t you tell us what kind of investments > > interest you / what kind of Hedge Funds you > would > > want to work for ? > > > What happened during the interview? > What is your background? I posted that in a thread a couple of months ago, here is the copy paste of it, if you are interested in reading it. My background is Big 4 TS. ************************ I think anyone should be prepared for very challenging interviews for top finance jobs. And by very challenging I mean that they won’t really test your knowledge (for entry-level jobs). By challenging I mean that they will test how sharp you remain under pressure. I once had an interview for a very prestigious investment firm. They interrupted me when I was talking about my CV at some point to ask me the square root of a number under 1. If you are like me, the surprise will be enough for you to mess it up. Then if you are lucky, you get a paper case study where you have some time to put your sh!t together. If you are unlucky like me the case study will be oral, in consists of you giving your recommendation to invest in given imaginary meat-processing company A or in given imaginary logistics company B. Since you have zero information on neither companies you are asked to orally improvise a plausible 2007-2010 summary P&L and CF statements item by item from Sales to Net CashFlow. Your interviewer sketches what you are saying on paper (you are not writing) and challenges every assumption you make about P&L line item, e.g. being fixed / variable, why did it decrease from x% while other item decreased by y% why do you assume that the delta in Working Capital will be positive if you have so many DSO, DPO, and Days of inventories held and what will be the cash effect, etc, etc. Repeat process for company number 2 and compare for example EBITDA margins’decline for the 2 companies given their respective cost structures, justifying everything you say. Case study is over, and you feel like a retard for screwing up questions that you know were not challenging if not under pressure. Then comes the second part, your general knowledge of let’s say valuation, with questions like what do you have to watch out for when using valuation method XYZ. That’s a walk in the park compared to first part of interview that you screwed up. Then interview is over, they tell you what are the next steps, but you know it’s formality because you screwed up the case study anyways. So you leave feeling like you’ve been KO’ed, but happy to be out of there. You kick yourself from ruining such an opportunity but on the bright side, you know that you won’t be caught off guard the next time. Bottom line : be prepared. I think what I described is pretty common for good finance jobs. These people are buying brain power. Anyone can spend weeks googling what they do, but not anyone can think clearly and fast under pressure. Good luck. Don’t want to scare you, but I think it’s good for you to be prepared. ********************************
I fold like a sack of potatoes under pressure. I can’t even choose a beverage at a restaurant with a waiter standing over me, and I always drink beer.
i just put square root 1 into my calculator.
Gryfon Financial – you’ll get “kick ass returns”
Viceroy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > SuperiorReturn Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Viceroy Wrote: > > > -------------------------------------------------- > > > ----- > > > I once had an interview for a Hedge Fund, it > was > > a > > > pretty humbling experience. > > > > > > A Hedge Fund is a rather blanket term. > > > Why don’t you tell us what kind of > investments > > > interest you / what kind of Hedge Funds you > > would > > > want to work for ? > > > > > > What happened during the interview? > > What is your background? > > I posted that in a thread a couple of months ago, > here is the copy paste of it, if you are > interested in reading it. My background is Big 4 > TS. > > ************************ > > I think anyone should be prepared for very > challenging interviews for top finance jobs. > > And by very challenging I mean that they won’t > really test your knowledge (for entry-level jobs). > By challenging I mean that they will test how > sharp you remain under pressure. > > > I once had an interview for a very prestigious > investment firm. They interrupted me when I was > talking about my CV at some point to ask me the > square root of a number under 1. > > If you are like me, the surprise will be enough > for you to mess it up. > > Then if you are lucky, you get a paper case study > where you have some time to put your sh!t > together. > > If you are unlucky like me the case study will be > oral, in consists of you giving your > recommendation to invest in given imaginary > meat-processing company A or in given imaginary > logistics company B. > > Since you have zero information on neither > companies you are asked to orally improvise a > plausible 2007-2010 summary P&L and CF statements > item by item from Sales to Net CashFlow. > > Your interviewer sketches what you are saying on > paper (you are not writing) and challenges every > assumption you make about P&L line item, e.g. > being fixed / variable, why did it decrease from > x% while other item decreased by y% why do you > assume that the delta in Working Capital will be > positive if you have so many DSO, DPO, and Days of > inventories held and what will be the cash effect, > etc, etc. > > Repeat process for company number 2 and compare > for example EBITDA margins’decline for the 2 > companies given their respective cost structures, > justifying everything you say. > > Case study is over, and you feel like a retard for > screwing up questions that you know were not > challenging if not under pressure. > > Then comes the second part, your general knowledge > of let’s say valuation, with questions like what > do you have to watch out for when using valuation > method XYZ. That’s a walk in the park compared to > first part of interview that you screwed up. > > Then interview is over, they tell you what are the > next steps, but you know it’s formality because > you screwed up the case study anyways. So you > leave feeling like you’ve been KO’ed, but happy to > be out of there. > > You kick yourself from ruining such an opportunity > but on the bright side, you know that you won’t be > caught off guard the next time. > > Bottom line : be prepared. I think what I > described is pretty common for good finance jobs. > These people are buying brain power. Anyone can > spend weeks googling what they do, but not anyone > can think clearly and fast under pressure. > > Good luck. Don’t want to scare you, but I think > it’s good for you to be prepared. > > ******************************** Its good to hear that… at least you know ppl who get the jobs didn’t just get it because they had connections or what not.
^^^ From what I saw and based on my understanding, this just would not make sense in a HF setting. Maybe hiring the marginal idiot who happens to be the son of an important investor will help your HF raising money. But a HF where an important proportion of staff is well-connected mediocre people just won’t do well compared with a HF which hires based on intelligence, talent and skills. I think you can do well in IB if you are of mediocre intelligence and talent but well connected as you are essentially a salesman. Sophisticated investing (HF) is a completely different story. Just my 0.02.