It’s a big, brand name fund that started early in the industry and caught all the positive structural developments that benefited hedge funds in the 1990s. That helps a lot. It’s sort of like Greenlight – is it a top firm? Sure, but mainly because Einhorn started at the right time and had a good run. The performance has not been good in recent years now that they are huge. Still a billionaire though.
You don’t get fired for allocating to Greenlight or Citadel and they have all the infrastructure checkboxes to make the ODD process very easy. Existing size helps greatly with raising assets but size /= good performance going forward. If you look at the consolidation of the FoF industry, it makes sense that really big allocators would allocate to really big hedge funds because for the same amount of diligence, you get access to more talent and can cut a larger check. At least half the decision for allocators is centered around regulatory compliance and operational robustness of the fund, with the balance focused on returns and strategy. That doesn’t mean Citadel is anywhere near the top performance (it isn’t), but it does have an excellent platform with a long-term record (we agree on that).
This a long tailed game. In order to win, you must first not lose. If you can simply avoid losing big at any time, you should be able to compound your capital 5x over a market cycle. If you are down huge and spend the rest of the cycle getting back to par that is a huge missed opportunity. Citadel’s investors would have been better off at nearly every other really big hedge fund, so if we’re comparing apples/apples in terms of big funds, Citadel is not among the best. Sure, it’s better than some random tiny fund, obviously.
It might be too late to do anything now, but don’t let this boozo tell you what to do.
If you strongly believe that you are a strong candidate you should have followed up until you get a response from them. For example, if they said you will hear back in 2 weeks, start bugging them 1 week after.
If you think you are strong, you should let me know that you are and that you would appreciate a response and stop wasting your time. Yes, they can be annoyed, and just reject you right there, but how likely is that if you are the strongest candidate? If they liked you, or if they are still deciding between you and one other candidate they would mostly likely tell you. And if they “hated” you, then you will not get a response or get the rejection earlier. So either way, you should’ve followed up more often and sooner.
It might be too late now, because due to the lack of followup from you, they may think that you are no longer interested or don’t have the competitive spirit that they are looking for. Seriously, if you truly believe you are the shit, let me know you are! The worst thing is they say that you are not good enough, which is also great. At least now you can move onto other things instead of waiting for shit to happen.
They would have been better off at any other hedge fund that did not lose 50%+ in one year and otherwise had good performance since 2008. That is factually correct and there are hundreds of funds that meet that criteria.
If i had not been interested in the job i would not have gone through all those rounds, spending so much time in their interview process, took off from work…if that did not show them i am interested, then i dont know what will…as far as following up goes, I did that for the exact same reason so that i clould get some closure on position and more importantly i could get peace of mind…In response i got stalled again…we are still interviewing others…
@Goblin You have been through a lot to prepare and to take time off to interview, but don’t assume they would know this. Everybody that apply to a job says he or she is interested, but how can they deferentiate who is more interested than the other? You gotta show them!
At this point, just forget about this company. If they are still interviewing that means they are not interested in you. They could be lying about interviewing others, but clearly, they are not so interested in you anymore.
That’s fine, life goes on. Move on to the next one. Best of luck!
You need to do a far better job creating a market for yourself and be your own catalyst. What I mean by that is to tell them you’ve been presented with “other opportunities” that you must make a decision on within one week, and either they give you an offer or you’re moving on. Let them take it however they wish.
If they give you an offer, then you’ve successfully pushed them into a situation where they make a decision and it was a favorable outcome for you. If they don’t give you an offer, you’re no worse off than you are now, which is probably somewhere “middle of the pack” while they continue to explore their options since you are not giving them any impetus to hurry or to take you more seriously.