如何準備對衝基金公司的面試

Answer by Jack Wei, principle at a hedge fund

傑克·魏的回答，對衝基金負責人

I’ve interviewed with a number of hedge funds, so hopefully I can provide you a view from the interviewee’s perspective; Nick’s right on from an interviewer’s stance. This is roughly what went into my preparation:

我曾參加過許多家對衝基金公司的面試，所以，但願我能夠給你提供一個面試者的視角；尼克從面試官的角度給出的回答是正確的。以下是我爲面試所做的準備：

Know yourself: The first question I always got asked was, “Tell me about yourself.” Why are you interested in buy-side? What sort of experience do you have? Why do you want to relocate? What kind of compensation are you looking for?

知己：面試時常被問到的第一個問題是：“請描述一下你自己。”你爲什麼對買方業務感興趣？你有哪些經驗？你爲什麼想要跳槽？你希望獲得的薪酬是多少？

I think your interest and experience are of utmost importance. Most people, including bankers, want to get their feet in the industry because of the generous compensation, but are surprisingly clueless about how to value stocks. If you are passionate, you should probably brush up during leisure.

我認爲，求職者的興趣和經驗是最重要的。由於豐厚的報酬，大多數人，包括銀行業者在內，都希望進入這個行業，但令人意外的是，許多人對如何評估股票的價值一無所知。如果你對這個行業充滿熱情，就應該在閒暇時間給自己充充電。

Know the fund: The second most common question I get asked is, “What do you know about us?” (Often asked in a very cold tone). What’s their asset under management? Strategies? Sector focus? Who’s their head guy? Who’s their investor base? Performance? Culture? Did someone get sacked two years ago for having their friends in India front-run the firm?

知彼：最常被問到的第二個問題是：“你對我們瞭解多少？”（提問者通常以一種冰冷的語調提出這個問題）。基金旗下管理的資產有哪些？戰略？重點行業？他們的負責人分別是誰？他們的投資者羣體又是誰？績效？文化？兩年前，是否有人因爲讓他們的印度朋友搶在公司之前交易而被解僱？

Memorize the content on their Website. Conduct queries on and Google. Pull that fund information on Bloomberg and Factset. More specifically, dig through their 13F filings. I’d typically pull up data from the past four to eight quarters, input them into Excel, and then analyze every security organized by sector, size and position change over time.

記住基金網站的內容。在《華爾街日報》網站 ()和谷歌（Google）上進行查詢。查找該基金在彭博社（Bloomberg）和研究公司Factset上的信息。尤其是要仔細研究他們的13F表格。我通常會查找出過去四到八個季度的數據，將它們輸入Excel，然後按照部門、規模和倉位變化，對每一支證券進行分析。

If you’re drooling over the job, you should know everything within reach in the public domain. One portfolio manager who interviewed me disclosed they had sold out of a position. I noted it wasn’t public information. When he disagreed and thought I was careless in my research, I looked perplexed. He pondered for a minute, then realized it wasn’t and issued a kind apology.

如果你對這份工作垂涎三尺，你就應該知道公共領域內可以找到的所有信息。曾對我進行面試的一位投資組合經理披露，他們賣出了倉位。我注意到，這並非公開信息。後來當他與我意見不一致，並且認爲我的調查不夠仔細時，我有些迷茫。他考慮了一會兒，然後意識到事實並非如此，於是向我真誠地道歉。

Prepare stock pitches: I typically over-prepare. My personal rule is five longs, five shorts. I employ a methodical process whereby I flip through the past eight quarters of SEC filings and conference call transcripts. Read every single analyst report in the same time period. Construct financial models for all the names. Conduct a search on . Reach out to investor relations and sell-side if you must. What are the key drivers? Competitors? What’s the upside? Downside? What’s your edge? By the way, have a thesis. Back everything up – they love numbers.

準備股票介紹：我通常會準備得非常充分。我個人的原則是五支做多股票和五支做空股票。我採用了一個系統的流程，我會翻閱過去八個季度的SEC（美國證券交易委員會）文件以及電話會議記錄。閱讀同一時期每一位分析師的報告。爲所有股票構建財務模型。在上進行搜索。如果有必要，瞭解投資者關係和賣方。它們關鍵的驅動力是什麼？競爭對手是誰？優點是什麼？缺點是什麼？你的優勢是什麼？此外，可以寫一篇論文。爲所有觀點提供依據——他們喜歡數字。

As Nick pointed out, don’t pitch names that have received extensive media coverage. It signals a lack of creativity. It also helps if you can talk about macro events. If you’ve been investing for years, this should be no problem.

正如尼克所說，不要選擇已經廣受媒體關注的股票。因爲這會讓面試官認爲你缺乏創意。如果能談論一些宏觀事件，也會對面試有所幫助。如果你擁有多年投資經驗，這肯定不是問題。

Know the companies like you do your best friends. Be able to pitch a stock covering all of the above in one minute. There shouldn’t ever be a time when you don’t know the answer to any question, however obscure.

像瞭解自己最好的朋友一樣瞭解公司。要能在一分鐘之內介紹一支股票，包括上面提到的內容。你必須知道所有問題的答案，不論這個問題多麼刁鑽。

Create a cheat sheet: Combine the key talking points from 1 to 3 onto a two-sided cheat sheet. Memorize it well. Your delivery should be flawless. No stuttering. No hesitation. From my experience, 10 to 20 hours should do the trick. Of course, the cheat sheet won’t help you seal the deal if your answers for 1to 3 aren’t already rock solid.

準備一份“小抄”：在小抄的兩面，列出前三個談話要點。牢記這些要點。你的陳述應該毫無瑕疵，不能口吃，不能猶豫。根據我的經驗，10到20小時的練習便可以達到理想的效果。當然，如果你爲前三條準備的答案不夠可靠，即便小抄也無法幫你搞定面試。

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.

做好心理準備：在這方面，可能我不夠幸運。面試過我的所有人似乎都是冷血無情的傢伙。我認爲他們就是無情的吸血鬼，除非我能讓他們發笑，或者獲得他們的工作邀請。坐在桌子對面的人，管理着數十億美元的投資組合，他們可能帶給你這樣的印象：你正在浪費他們的時間，或者你太年輕，對資本市場知之甚少。儘管我知道說起來容易做起來難，但面對這種情況，不必驚慌。

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.

說一個我自己的經歷吧。我的面試官負責一支30億美元的基金，他低着頭盯着我的簡歷看了五分鐘。他根本不跟我進行眼神接觸。過了一會兒，他說道：“我認爲你的對衝基金讓你這麼做是非常不負責任的。”我臉紅了，意識到他對我的簡歷肯定有一些誤解（很顯然，東海岸公司與西海岸公司在做事方式上有一點區別），所以我非常冷靜地向他進行了解釋。我簡要陳述完之後，他看了我一眼，說道：“你非常傲慢自大。” 這讓我直冒冷汗，因爲這句話完全是憑空而出，毫無道理。於是我當場想到幾句話，回擊了他一下。他迴應說：“你讓我想起了我25歲的時候。”過了一會兒，他走了出去。我非常沮喪——我請假兩天，遠赴3,000英里之外的地方，就是爲了搞砸一場面試？從他的行爲舉止，我根本沒指望能有積極的結果。幾周之後，我竟然收到了那家公司的電話，還有工作邀請。

Answer by Nick Lawler, investor

尼克o勞勒的回答，投資人

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?

你需要做的第一件事，是確定對衝基金採取的策略。業內有成千上萬支基金，採取的策略也各不相同。提前查找出所有信息，比如他們進行哪一類投資？他們的時間期限通常是多久？創始人有什麼背景？這些基金都參與哪些業務？

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.

對於大多數基金，你應該準備幾條投資創意，至少包括一條做空創意。做空很難，一般需要有一定經驗，因此，基金公司往往非常看重經驗豐富的賣空高手。

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.

投資創意應該展示你對公司基本面、行業動態、你所建議倉位的風險/回報的理解。要重點強調自己的建議與共識觀點有什麼不同。

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).

你會發現，跟面試官討論沒有獲得廣泛關注的公司，會更容易給對方留下積極的印象。如果你面試的是一家TMT（通信、媒體、科技）基金，你的面試官可能已經選擇了蘋果（Apple）或者谷歌（Google），但或許他們還沒有關注一家市值10億美元的拉丁美洲公司。（忠告：不要選擇非常小的公司，因爲這樣的創意是無法執行的。）

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.

推介投資的格式沒有內容那麼重要；你可以使用幻燈片或者簡短的書面文件，或者兩者結合使用。不論使用哪種方式，必須認真描述創意的優點、公司的基本屬性、相關估值標準等，不必提及任何參考文件。給面試官留下一份創意副本是不錯的做法。

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

如果沒有得到回覆，你隨後可以補充自己的創意，或提出新的可行創意。

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

創意構思非常關鍵。你的目標是證明自己可以經常構想出有利可圖的投資創意。

Answer by Jose Torres, I work at a large hedge fund

約瑟o託雷斯的回答，我在一家規模很大的對衝基金公司工作

Every fund has their own culture and this is probably reflected in the interview process via unique/strange questions, but generally speaking the best way to prepare for hedge fund interviews is to have a few reasonably unique (i.e., not Apple or Microsoft or some mega cap) long and short ideas.

每一個基金公司都有自己的文化，而這在面試過程也會有所反映，比如那些獨特/古怪的問題，但一般而言，準備對衝基金面試最好的方式，是構思一些具有合理獨特性【例如，不要選擇蘋果或微軟（Microsoft）或其他超高市值公司】的做多和做空創意。

You should have both long and short ideas. Longs are somewhat ‘dime a dozen’ so having a well-crafted, interesting short pitch can go a long way toward distinguishing your candidacy.

你應該準備做多與做空兩方面的創意。做多是“大路貨”，因此，精心準備一份有趣的簡短介紹文件，可以幫助你從求職者當中脫穎而出。

I’d also recommend more than one long and short, since you never know when the interviewer will ding an idea right out of the gate with some version of, “I’ve already heard that 10 times this week. How about something else?”

此外，我建議不要只准備一條做多與做空創意，因爲你永遠不知道面試官會在什麼時候打斷你的創意，比如，他可能這麼說：“這樣的內容，我這周已經聽過十遍了。有沒有其他內容？”

Answer by Marianne Wai-Ying O, investment management

瑪麗安娜o瓦伊-英oO的回答，投資管理

I would like to add that be prepared to show a report you have written on an investment idea or case study on an industry. Effective and succinct communication is really important as portfolio managers and chief investment officers only have very limited time to understand your story.

我想補充的是，準備一份自己編寫的投資創意報告或對某個行業的案例研究。簡潔有效的溝通非常重要，因爲投資組合經理和首席投資官只能拿出有限的時間來了解你的情況。

Share your idea about risk control or hedging either for your own investment idea or in general for the portfolio is a great idea too.

針對自己的投資創意或投資組合，分享自己對風險控制或對衝操作的想法，也是不錯的主意。

Be very good with Excel (with macro) spreadsheets and hopefully statistics too!

做好Excel表格（使用宏命令）和統計數據！

Answer by Nicholas Chavez, predictive analytics & hedge funds

尼古拉斯o查韋斯的回答，預測分析與對衝基金

Well, the most important things for you to find out between now and the interview are the following:

從現在到面試之前，你應該明確的最重要的問題是：

1. What is the fund’s strategy? (Quant, Long/Short, Global Macro, etc …)

1. 基金的策略是什麼？（量化基金，做多/做空基金，全球宏觀型基金等）

2. Which instruments are traded to implement fund strategy?

2. 使用哪一種交易工具來執行基金策略？

3. What was their return last year net of fees.

3. 扣除手續費後，去年的回報是多少？

If you know these three things, you will be prepared to begin to prepare for your interview.

如果你瞭解了上述三個問題，你就可以開始爲面試做準備了。

Then you need to review the mechanics of #2. If they are derivative/option based, then you had darn well better understand the different types of outs and calls as well as have some reasonable understanding of the Greeks (focus on Theta, Alpha and Beta).

之後，你需要研究第二個問題的細節。如果交易工具基於衍生品/期權，你便需要充分了解不同類型的賣出和買進，並且要對希臘字母代表的係數有合理的瞭解（主要是Theta係數、Alpha係數和Beta係數）。

Also, most funds of size will have released their performance related to standard deviation of risk and probability.

此外，大多數基金都會發布與風險和概率標準偏差有關的績效。

The above information is for any job at a hedge fund, so its foundational knowledge. Now realize that there will be questions that are position specific.

上述信息適合對衝基金的所有職位，所以屬於基礎知識。下面是針對具體職位的一些問題。

Generally, these fall into the following categories and which you fall into will be initially derived from your past work experience and/or your degree if you are interviewing for an internship:

一般而言可以分成以下幾類職務，求職者適合哪個職務，主要取決於以往的工作經驗和/或學位（若申請實習崗位）：

Sales: These positions focus upon gathering additional assets for a fund that is not yet “closed.” Be prepared to talk about relationship building strategies, CRM software and your golf handicap.

銷售：該崗位主要是爲尚未“封閉”的基金募集額外資產。做好準備，好好談談建立人際關係的策略、CRM（客戶關係管理）軟件和你的高爾夫水平吧。

Analyst: These are support positions for portfolio managers that generally are 100% focused on research of a market, instrument or derivative. You should know the underlying research area cold.

分析師：屬於投資組合經理的支持崗位，通常全身心地致力於對一個市場、票據或衍生品的研究。你應該對相關研究領域有透徹瞭解。

Trader/Portfolio Manager: This position is past performance driven. Track record speaks loudest here, and you must be able to identify your role in the asset appreciation. Former analysts can present track record via recommendations.

交易員/投資組合經理：該崗位以過往績效爲導向。以往的成績最有發言權，你必須能夠明確自己在資產增值方面的角色。上文提到的分析師可以通過推薦幫助你展示以往的業績。

Back office: This is most like interviewing for a job in industry, though they will examine your ability to perform under pressure. In all cases, remain calm while showing intelligence and excitement.

後勤辦公室：在基金公司中，此崗位的面試與一般行業的面試最爲接近，往往會考察求職者在壓力下的表現。總之，無論在什麼情況下，都要保持冷靜，展現自己的智慧和興奮之情。

Enthusiasm is always welcomed.

有激情的求職者總是很受歡迎。