如何准备对冲基金公司的面试？

    做好心理准备：在这方面，可能我不够幸运。面试过我的所有人似乎都是冷血无情的家伙。我认为他们就是无情的吸血鬼，除非我能让他们发笑，或者获得他们的工作邀请。坐在桌子对面的人，管理着数十亿美元的投资组合，他们可能带给你这样的印象：你正在浪费他们的时间，或者你太年轻，对资本市场知之甚少。尽管我知道说起来容易做起来难，但面对这种情况，不必惊慌。

    说一个我自己的经历吧。我的面试官负责一支30亿美元的基金，他低着头盯着我的简历看了五分钟。他根本不跟我进行眼神接触。过了一会儿，他说道：“我认为你的对冲基金让你这么做是非常不负责任的。”我脸红了，意识到他对我的简历肯定有一些误解（很显然，东海岸公司与西海岸公司在做事方式上有一点区别），所以我非常冷静地向他进行了解释。我简要陈述完之后，他看了我一眼，说道：“你非常傲慢自大。” 这让我直冒冷汗，因为这句话完全是凭空而出，毫无道理。于是我当场想到几句话，回击了他一下。他回应说：“你让我想起了我25岁的时候。”过了一会儿，他走了出去。我非常沮丧——我请假两天，远赴3,000英里之外的地方，就是为了搞砸一场面试？从他的行为举止，我根本没指望能有积极的结果。几周之后，我竟然收到了那家公司的电话，还有工作邀请。

    尼克•劳勒的回答，投资人

    你需要做的第一件事，是确定对冲基金采取的策略。业内有成千上万支基金，采取的策略也各不相同。提前查找出所有信息，比如他们进行哪一类投资？他们的时间期限通常是多久？创始人有什么背景？这些基金都参与哪些业务？

    对于大多数基金，你应该准备几条投资创意，至少包括一条做空创意。做空很难，一般需要有一定经验，因此，基金公司往往非常看重经验丰富的卖空高手。

    投资创意应该展示你对公司基本面、行业动态、你所建议仓位的风险/回报的理解。要重点强调自己的建议与共识观点有什么不同。

    你会发现，跟面试官讨论没有获得广泛关注的公司，会更容易给对方留下积极的印象。如果你面试的是一家TMT（通信、媒体、科技）基金，你的面试官可能已经选择了苹果（Apple）或者谷歌（Google），但或许他们还没有关注一家市值10亿美元的拉丁美洲公司。（忠告：不要选择非常小的公司，因为这样的创意是无法执行的。）

    推介投资的格式没有内容那么重要；你可以使用幻灯片或者简短的书面文件，或者两者结合使用。不论使用哪种方式，必须认真描述创意的优点、公司的基本属性、相关估值标准等，不必提及任何参考文件。给面试官留下一份创意副本是不错的做法。

    如果没有得到回复，你随后可以补充自己的创意，或提出新的可行创意。

    创意构思非常关键。你的目标是证明自己可以经常构想出有利可图的投资创意。

    Be psychologically prepared: Perhaps I was unlucky in this regard, but every single person who has ever interviewed me has been seemingly heartless. I thought they were callous vampires until I either made them smile or received the offers. I know this is easier said than done when someone managing a billion-dollar portfolio is sitting across the table and gives off the impression that you’re either wasting their time or are too young to know a thing about the capital markets, but don’t get psyched out.

    To provide an anecdotal example, the head of a $3 billion fund was staring down at my resume for a good five minutes. He didn’t establish eye contact at all. Moments later, he remarked, “I think it’s deeply irresponsible that your hedge fund let you do this.” My face turned red, and I realized there was a slight miscommunication on my resume (apparently East Coast firms do things a little differently than their West Coast counterparts), so I explained it very calmly. After I went over a condensed pitch, he gave me this look and noted, “You’re very arrogant.” This really made me sweat since it came out of nowhere, so I thought of something on the spot and tossed it back. He then responded with, “You remind me of myself … when I was 25.” Shortly after, he stepped out. I was so crest fallen – did I just take two days off work and travel 3,000 miles to bomb an interview? Surely, I didn’t expect a positive outcome given his demeanor. I got a call back a few weeks later with the offer.

    Answer by Nick Lawler, investor

    The first thing you need to do is figure out exactly what type of strategy the fund pursues. There are thousands of funds and strategies vary widely. Find out everything you can ahead of time, such as what kind of investments do they make? What is their typical time horizon? What is the background of the founders and what do those funds do?

    For most funds, you should prepare several investment ideas including at least one short idea. Shorting is hard and generally requires experience, so funds tend to value skilled short sellers highly.

    Your investment idea should show an understanding of the company’s fundamentals, industry dynamics, and the risk/reward of the position you are recommending. Highlight how your recommendation differs from consensus opinion.

    You may find it easier to positively impress your interviewer if you discuss companies that are not widely followed. If you are interviewing with a TMT fund, your interviewer will already have an opinion on Apple AAPL 0.04% or Google GOOG 0.87% but maybe they haven’t yet looked at a $1billion market capitalization company based in Latin America (caveat: don’t choose an extremely small company either as the idea won’t be actionable).

    The format of your investment pitch is not as important as the content; a few PowerPoint slides or a short written document are both fine. Either way, you should be able to succinctly describe the merits of your idea, the key fundamental attributes of the company, and relevant valuation metrics without reference to any of your supporting documents. Leaving a copy of your ideas is a nice touch.

    If you haven’t heard back, follow up with further thoughts on the ideas you pitched or new, actionable ideas you’ve developed.

    Idea generation is the coin of the realm. Your goal is to show that you can regularly generate profitable investment ideas.