A “Gone With The Wind” moment triggered a remarkable life turnaround for best-selling author, Marianna Olszwski. Like Scarlett O’Hara, she reached rock bottom and vowed “never to be this broke again” when her car broke down in the middle of the George Washington Bridge, and no one would help her.
Olzwski’s book, Live It, Love It, Earn It” and reviewed on NY1.com recently, is meaningful because she went on to achieve an MBA in international finance and to create a multimillion-dollar hedge fund marketing company. Her book is aimed at women, but offers advice that could help anyone searching for a hedge fund job these days.
Among her tips: don’t limit your networking to just job fairs and career-related events. Get out there and network at charity events, religious organizations, at your previous employers, just about everywhere.
Be attuned to your instincts and talents, as well, she says. If you have a nagging dream about changing careers or starting your own business, it’s there for a reason. Follow your instincts and you may end up doing something extraordinary.
Prospects looking for a job in hedge funds need flexibility and a laser-like focus on creating value, according to Robert Olman, president of Alpha Search Advisory Partners. Olman, who has been in the executive search business for 26 years, including 10 exclusively serving the hedge fund market, was interviewed recently by hedgefund.net
A small number of firms are hiring but are being extremely careful, often hiring one person to do the work previously done by two. Successful candidates need to separate themselves from the pack by offering a very narrowly crafted package of how they can solve a problem for the firm, or provide value in a very targeted area.
And if you make it to the interview process, you’ll have to be more patient and flexible, too, because the hedge fund job hiring process is taking 2-3 times longer these days. Aside from solving a specific problem, candidates must show they’re the right fit with the culture of the firm. Gone are the days of when firms were making money so fast they could ignore interpersonal conflicts, Olman says.
His final advice? Focus on areas that are growing, such as distressed debt, special situations, global macro and equity long-short. Stay away from convertible bond arbitrage, capital structure arbitrage, statistical arbitrage and PIPES (Private investments in public entities).
Recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. continues to release details on the hedge fund talent and compensation landscape for 2010.
Last year was what they call a “turnaround year” for the industry, as total hedge fund assets edged up over the $2 trillion mark once again.
Heidrick & Struggles surveyed more than 400 portfolio managers (PMs) and studied more than 100 hedge fund firms for their report. Some of their findings include:
- Higher demand for senior talent. The availability of senior talent is decreasing, as more professionals make the move to other funds, proprietary trading desks at banks, asset management firms and family offices.
- Bidding wars will return, as the increasing in hiring at banks and proprietary trading firms creates a higher demand for talent.
- Watch for a return of compensation guarantees in 2010 for front office professionals, although these may be linked to clawbacks and deferred forms of compensation.
Heidrick & Struggles also identified eight key characteristics of firms that are most likely to lose top talent. These characteristics include fund underperformance, lack of formulaic payouts to portfolio managers, shared portfolios, firms with less than $1 billion in capital, and funds undergoing a significant internal event, such as a merger or acquisition.
Claude Schwab, head of the U.S. hedge fund practice and a partner at Heidrick & Struggles, also identified “game changers” that trigger a top professional’s decision to leave even the best of firms. These include a very significant increase in capital allocation; sufficient capital to start one’s own firm; the opportunity to build a firm and/or be a key part of the firm’s succession plan; and the opportunity to serve a cause while investing.
