Holy F!$#. I met with one of the 3 GP’s and he asked me a bunch of q’s that threw me off guard. I think I messed up, but he said if I get called in for a 2nd round, I will be asked to model a stock and make a buy/sell recommendation and discuss with the 3 GP’s my investment idea (and of course, I’m sure they’ll be grilling me). Man, I really want this.
What’s the strategy and AUM of the fund out of curiosity?
Strategy is really open-ended - all sectors/industries. AUM is 200-300 million
How did you get the interview ?? Recruiter ?
efinancialcareers… the HF posted directly onto the site. Funny thing is… I got the interview on Tuesday, scheduled it for Friday. I stopped by the place on Wednesday night because I wanted to be familiar with a tight schedule today. So I come to a friggin apartment complex/condo complex. I’m like… um ok is this HF like a crappy one that’s running out of a garage? So I go in not expecting much today, and to my surprise they are actually quite successful in these early stages and this location is temporary. They will be taking up 2 office floors of a skyscraper.
topher - What’s your background like? Education? Were they all technical questions? Any brainteasers?
top 20 BA (non-finance, but took several econ courses and math courses) CFA L2 candidate 1 yr as financial “advisor” 1.75 years as MO “analyst” One thing I thought was F-d up was I was on my way to the interview and I’m literally 5 minutes away and they call to reschedule. So looking at the condo and this unprofessionalism I thought ok, this is gonna suck. I reschedule to around lunch time. My interviewer even left 5 minutes into the interview (he gave me a warning in the beginning) to talk to someone, took me out to the lobby, then came back and we finished the interview lol. It was a really short interview - 30 min. They scheduled a bunch of candidates back to back so I was 3rd in line. Questions were mostly qualitative analytical questions such as: What affects the interest rate of a bond? When should you buy a stock? When should you sell a stock? What do you think about FCF? What do you know about bonds? Where did the market close yesterday? Do you know VBA? How much experience do you have modeling? etc. No brain teasers. They pretty much said 2nd round will be the model/recommendation talk interview. Good thing is they are expanding big time. They WILL hire an analyst before year-end, and are looking to hire 25 more early next year (like Jan/Feb).
25? lol
25? lol, big time. 25 analysts for 200M AUM?! I’ve been at 2 funds: 6B AUM = 110 total staff; 2.5B = 75 total staff. So work it out and see if you want to go to this place - 200M makes an amazing year of 30% so incentive fees = 6% * 200M = 12M. Management fees = $4M. To support 25 analysts you need a total staff of about 100, so already our management fees provide $40K/person. Hmm… Can’t rent office space and pay salaries and benefits so we accrue (conservatively) $4M in debt. Our incentive fees come home so we pay back the debt leaving $8M. Principals take $4M. Leaves $4M. Means there is $40K/person in the bonus pool for a 30% year. In a 30% year, I want some number like $1M. There’s a problem maintaining any talent here. Edit: I meant at least $1M…
Joey, I have a strong feeling that he forgot to include a hyphen between the 2 and 5. topher, Given your background, working in a front office role at a hedge fund likely comes off as being very appealing. Always keep in mind, though, that you are also evaluating them. If they did say they would hire 25 analysts, I would likely not join on the basis of them being complete liars. Hell, even 5 analysts for a $200MM fund is a lot. If you do make it to additional rounds, you must focus on 1. what their track record is and how they’re doing this year (and also the levels of leverage used to achieve those returns and 2. the backgrounds of the PM(s) / senior analysts you will be working for. GL going forward!
Good Luck Toph. I hope this one works out for you. I know you’ve been on the job search for sometime now.
thanks joey for the info. Maybe I misunderstood what he said?? If I get to come back in I’ll definitely bring up these points. He told me they started a few years ago with 12m, and turned it into 150mm. Next year they will be getting more AUM from an investor to bring them to 200-300mm. So far this year they are +17%. The goal of the fund is 10% return/year after taxes. The 3 partners came from NY BB backgrounds such as UBS & GS. I don’t know their ages but they looked to be in their 40’s.
How are they up 17%?
JoeyDVivre Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > How are they up 17%? Don’t know. Is it ok to ask what kind of investments they do specifically? I thought that would be equivalent to asking for a secret recipe and not something they would divulge.
Write to me at joeydvivre at yahoo dot com. Gotta tell you some stuff here.
Joey D I’ve sent you an e-mail. Hope it didn’t go to your spam.
good luck! I hope you are doing practice models now
This doesn’t seem legit to me. No offense but you don’t exactly have the backgorund that I would think would generate an interview from a HF that posted on eFinancial careers…I’m suprised that a legit HF would post an analyst role on eFinancial careers to begin with but if they did in this environment they would likely get a significant amount of candidates with better education and experience than you. That is not a knock on you but you have no FO experience in ER or AM. If you had just told me that I’d be suspicious but then with the whole working out of a condo thing and hiring 25 analysts…It all seems a bit fishy. Be careful you don’t end up working for some Martin Frankel-esque scam.
RAwannabeCFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This doesn’t seem legit to me. No offense but you > don’t exactly have the backgorund that I would > think would generate an interview from a HF that > posted on eFinancial careers…I’m suprised that a > legit HF would post an analyst role on eFinancial > careers to begin with but if they did in this > environment they would likely get a significant > amount of candidates with better education and > experience than you. That is not a knock on you > but you have no FO experience in ER or AM. > > If you had just told me that I’d be suspicious but > then with the whole working out of a condo thing > and hiring 25 analysts…It all seems a bit fishy. > Be careful you don’t end up working for some > Martin Frankel-esque scam. Topher has mentioned that HF is interviewing many more candidates and he is one of them. HF hires people from all background and FO exp is recommended but not required. I think in this market one needs luck than qualification. 200M fund is hiring 25 analysts sound fishy though.
RAwannabeCFA Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This doesn’t seem legit to me. No offense but you > don’t exactly have the backgorund that I would > think would generate an interview from a HF that > posted on eFinancial careers…I’m suprised that a > legit HF would post an analyst role on eFinancial > careers to begin with but if they did in this > environment they would likely get a significant > amount of candidates with better education and > experience than you. That is not a knock on you > but you have no FO experience in ER or AM. > > If you had just told me that I’d be suspicious but > then with the whole working out of a condo thing > and hiring 25 analysts…It all seems a bit fishy. > Be careful you don’t end up working for some > Martin Frankel-esque scam. I agree with everything you’ve stated except the hedge funds not posting on efinancialcareers part. That’s where the majority post.