Book to prep for hedge fund interviews

[rdaws]

I know there are a few bankers / HF guys on here, so would love to get your advice on something.

I'm making a jump from consulting into hedge funds / PE and am interviewing now. I'm really looking for some pointers on the Hedge Fund interviews in particular; I'm most interested in public equity long/short, but my worry is that my strategy background hasn't adequately prepped me for some of the technical financial questions I'm going to get, particularly around the balance sheet.

Is there a good prep guide or a book I can read to get me up to speed on these things so I don't sound like an idiot? In PE they're generally very tolerant of consultants' stumbles in financials (they want you for your smarts, not for what they can teach you), but my sense is that Hedge Funds want people at least generally literate.

There are guides online, but they're all pretty awful advice ("http://howtogetahedgefundjob.com/" is particularly bad, I can't believe anybody that's taken that site to heart has found employment but by the stroke of luck), so I really just need a good book on value and fundamentals investing.

Also, I plan on being very upfront about my background and skill set, and it's already been made clear to those I'm interviewing with that I don't come from a banking background. I'm not trying to get a job that'll put me in over my head. I want something that values my background for what it is, and I don't want to sound like a moron during the interview.

 

[gdl203]

Why do you want to work at a HF and why do you think you'd be good at it? Do you know what people there do at various levels and job descriptions?

I'd be focusing on answering these questions first, and in a convincing way, before worrying about technicals.

 

[RedScarf7]

Vault Guide is a decent prep book. I'm in the final stages of the interview process for an analyst job, and a lot of what I have encountered was covered in that book. Your mileage may vary for HF work.

Like gdl says, the "elevator pitch" is about the most important question you will face, and you have to be able to answer convincingly without your answer sounding too formulaic or rehearsed. Also, oftentimes they are far more concerned with assessing how you will fit into their shop (ie, do they want to spend 80+ hours a week with you?) and less concerned with how awesome at finance you are as most entry level positions are going to be a lot of grunt work with a ton of on the job learning.

 

[suited]

I work at a fund of funds/PE, I'm reading The Handbook of Alternative Assets (http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Alter...dp/047121826X).

It covers funds & PE - along with a host of other topics. It's a good read and not too heavy on math, so it seems fitting in this situation.

As far as the interviews, a friend of mine has interviewed at a two funds recently, and they required him to build a model before they would even bring him in for the first interview. I'm not sure how common this is, but I've seen other similar requirements when I was job hunting. One position wanted an excel/quantitative test completed before they would consider interviewing you. I started as an intern originally, so my interview wasn't quite as intense as others may have experienced.

 

[maverick]

I think one important thing for L/S funds is to have specific stock picks and defend them. Need to show interest in the markets/your job... typically these places for very entrepreneurial and they need to generate ideas. Disclaimer: I have not done any of these interviews.

 

[DistressedDebt]

Hello rdaws - My name is Hunter and I run the Distressed Debt Investing Blog, the Distressed Debt Investors Club, and (as seen by your lovely post above) the How to Get a Hedge Fund Blog site - We are about to launch a whole new service where we help candidates write competitive resumes and case studies and assist them on the interview process - Given your critique of our site, I wanted to work with you personally to help you secure a buy side job. No charge.

You can reach me at hunter [at] distressed-debt-investing [dot] com .... cheers

 

[untilted]

Originally Posted by DistressedDebt

Hello rdaws - My name is Hunter and I run the Distressed Debt Investing Blog, the Distressed Debt Investors Club, and (as seen by your lovely post above) the How to Get a Hedge Fund Blog site - We are about to launch a whole new service where we help candidates write competitive resumes and case studies and assist them on the interview process - Given your critique of our site, I wanted to work with you personally to help you secure a buy side job. No charge.

You can reach me at hunter [at] distressed-debt-investing [dot] com .... cheers

this guy is legit.

Hunter, help me secure a buy side job in a year?

 

[fairholme_wannabe]

Originally Posted by DistressedDebt

Hello rdaws - My name is Hunter and I run the Distressed Debt Investing Blog, the Distressed Debt Investors Club, and (as seen by your lovely post above) the How to Get a Hedge Fund Blog site - We are about to launch a whole new service where we help candidates write competitive resumes and case studies and assist them on the interview process - Given your critique of our site, I wanted to work with you personally to help you secure a buy side job. No charge. You can reach me at hunter [at] distressed-debt-investing [dot] com .... cheers
Want to say--I am a big fan of your site. The Alice Schroeder interview you posted today was great. Any plans to post equity ideas (e.g. full write-ups) on your Schloss/Value Investing site the way you do debt instruments on distressed debt? I know there are other communities that sort of do this (zero sum ; value investor club), but frankly, they don't do it as well as the write-ups you share from DDIC. By the way--very jealous of the above offer. Rdaws, you'd be a fool not to take him up on the above offer. Best

 

[untilted]

Originally Posted by fairholme_wannabe

Want to say--I am a big fan of your site. The Alice Schroeder interview you posted today was great. Any plans to post equity ideas (e.g. full write-ups) on your Schloss/Value Investing site the way you do debt instruments on distressed debt? I know there are other communities that sort of do this (zero sum ; value investor club), but frankly, they don't do it as well as the write-ups you share from DDIC.

By the way--very jealous of the above offer. Rdaws, you'd be a fool not to take him up on the above offer.

Best

+100

don't know how you can juggle with a full time job AND running all these blogs!

 

[vitaminc]

how much do you know about the industry? good luck finding long/short equity guys. its a brutal year for equities; 75%+ movements are correlated, its an absolute nightmare for stock pickers.

to start, the CFA Basics book should prep you for most of the basic basic accounting stuff. that book is so fundamental to stock picking that u should know everything in it.

depending on the firm, they either hire sector specific analyst or generalists. so if you are serving a very specific industry clients at the moment, it will help a bit.

btw, what kind of consulting? bcg/mckinsy strategic consulting will not be too hard. IT consulting, good ******* luck; better finding a job at SFBA as software engineer for better pay.

 

[Dashaansafin]

Originally Posted by vitaminc

how much do you know about the industry? good luck finding long/short equity guys. its a brutal year for equities; 75%+ movements are correlated, its an absolute nightmare for stock pickers.

to start, the CFA Basics book should prep you for most of the basic basic accounting stuff. that book is so fundamental to stock picking that u should know everything in it.

depending on the firm, they either hire sector specific analyst or generalists. so if you are serving a very specific industry clients at the moment, it will help a bit.

btw, what kind of consulting? bcg/mckinsy strategic consulting will not be too hard. IT consulting, good ******* luck; better finding a job at SFBA as software engineer for better pay.

^Yea it depends what kind of consulting. If its MBB then you are MUCH better off than anywhere else.

 

[Fuuma]

Use this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Final-Exit-Pra...9491955&sr=8-1

 

[maverick]

Not funny