interview help

Water Cooler
#1

Fellas.Need some guidance. Saw an ad for a trading/ops role at a small hedge fund in denver this morning. Shot them a quick note with my resume saying I’d love to be considered and they wrote back to schedule an interview.

Never been in this hot seat before. Can you please tell me how I should best prepare myself? What am I going to be asked?

Is it true I’ll have to be able to pitch a stock?

This is a serious thread. Please leave all jokes for the MAGA thread.

#2

What kind of hedge fund is this? In general, yes, places seem to care mostly about how you intend to make money. If it’s a fundamentals place, you better have 3 stock pitches at the minimum.

#3

http://www.streetofwalls.com/articles/hedge-fund/

Pretty good website about hedge fund interview prep. It’s geared towards an analyst interview but I think the basics like knowing the difference between knowing multimanager and single, etc could be good to know.

#4

I haven’t looked through it but has to be at least a few relevant articles in there.

https://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/articles/

#5

Where’s Numi when you need him? He only seems to show up for Fantasy Football these days.

#6

They have a few different strategies. Primarily look like a global macro fund, but also have a long/short fund and another large cap SMA. So seems to be super top-down - so I guess I better prepare a good economic update. It says entry level in the job title though, so I’d have to imagine it’s a trading/ops role.

Thank you for the feedback.

#7

Good luck with the interview!!! :+1: :slightly_smiling_face:

#8

But as a charterholder, you should make CFO within a week.

:wink:

Good luck on the interview!

#9

Good point. I’ll be sure to bring my charter in with me to the interview. They be warned if they touch the glass without gloves on though…

but thank you!!

#10

Bring some burly thugs with you to tune 'em up and teach 'em a lesson!!! :smiling_imp:

#11

That’s actually a great idea. They can follow me around and carry the charter with them everywhere we go. Think of all the superior returns that would happen.

#12

Good luck. No idea what trading/ops interviews are like. You could reach out to Numi and get a crash course

#13

Ok, realistically trading ops is going to be a glorified portfolio administration role. Which doesn’t make it a bad move and there’s no harm having a 5 minute pitch prepared to show interest in markets but just show you’re driven, motivated, do not f*ck up details and know how to use excel. IMO.

#14

Thanks Swan. That’s really what I was thinking.

#15

Also, here’s a question I just thought of. I seem to remember a while back reading an online article where the author used the analogy that the hedge fund world is like having 1,000 pilots flying planes in the air, but only 10 of them are skilled.

If that’s true, then what apart from performance would separate a good hedge fund from a bad one?

#16

Well performance is #1 in HF’s.

#2 would be marketing.

Some people would reverse those.

#17

Can you post the job description? There’s a world of difference between Ops and something more like a jr analyst. I can’t imagine anyone in Ops needing to pitch a stock or give a market overview. Maybe hedge funds are different though.

Watch every episode of Billions.

#18

Sure. It feels extremely elementary. Which probably even means a paycut.

  • Work on the trading floor to support the research and investment management team of global macro asset management firm that oversees both hedge funds and separately managed accounts;
  • Maintain trading and portfolio accounting systems;
  • Produce various internal and external reports;
  • Stage and execute trades;
  • Help monitor portfolio risk management systems including CVaR modeling, stress testing, and exposure limits;
  • Build strong working relationships with the firm’s service providers, including brokers, custodians, administrators, performance verifiers, and auditors;
  • Help build and maintain the firm’s equity and macro model - there is advancement opportunity into the research and investment management side of the business if the candidate excels in this area;
  • For a time at least, the candidate will have access to a Bloomberg and will be expected to become highly proficient with it;
  • Provide the tech support for producing the investment team’s audio and video content for marketing purposes, i.e. podcasts, TV interviews etc.;
  • Maintain data security and disaster recovery systems;
  • With help of the firm’s outside IT consultant firm, serve as internal head of IT;
  • Help marketing and client service staff with the technical aspects of the firm’s website; CRM database, and email marketing campaigns etc.;
  • Handle client needs in a professional and friendly manner; and
  • Assist on special projects as needed;
#19

Hey folks, someone pinged me and said I should chime in, so here I am! How’s everyone doing in 2020 so far?

Check out the articles in my signature, as I think they’ll be a good starting point for your interview prep. You probably won’t have to do a deep dive into any individual stocks, but being able to articulate your interest in trading and public equity investing and staying abreast of key issues is a must! My contact information is in the articles, too - numi.advisory at gmail.

Thanks for the shout-out, rawraw and Greenman72! See you all in September for this year’s AnalystForum Fantasy Football league, where I hope to improve on my inglorious last-place finish in 2019. :+1:

#20

It went really really well. I spent an hour and 45 minutes total talking with them. That’s a good sign right? They’d have gotten me the heck out otherwise yes?