“It seems most job titles have specific educational requirements. From the survey results, a Bachelors degree is definitely a minimum educational requisite; however, having an advanced degree or MBA is not a requirement for many positions. A Masters Degree or MBA is more prevalent in the Analyst, Portfolio Manager and Trader roles (38% have an advanced degree). Some key administrative positions require professional certifications such as CPA.

“When it comes to compensation, the MBA does seem to pay off. MBA’s, on average, are earning 33% more in cash compensation – most of which is earned in bonus.

“When it comes to satisfaction with overall compensation, the MBA’s are actually less satisfied than all the respondents. This is likely due to expectations of additional compensation such as equity in the firm.”

From the 2007 Hedge Fund Search Digest Compensation Survey

A new study by University of Chicago suggests that tougher personality traits drive more success than traits like teamwork or flexibility.

The study detailed personal assessments of 313 CEO job candidates (225 were actually hired) whose performance drove the study’s conclusions. The data was collected by ghSmart, who does much of its work for private-equity investors, including Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. Then the professors at University of Chicago Business School compared the results to actual performance.

Here are top and bottom five traits that correlate most closely with business success at buyout companies:

Traits that matter…

• Persistence
• Attention to detail
• Efficiency
• Analytical skills
• Setting high standards

And those that matter least…

• Strong oral communication
• Teamwork
• Flexibility/adaptability
• Enthusiasm
• Listening skills

Find the full article here.

Warren Harvey heads the Asset Management group at WorldBridge Partners (www.worldbridgepartners.com), member of Management Recruiters International and a top 25 executive recruiting firm covering many industries.

Tell us how you got to be in recruiting, and why you’ve stayed in it.

I’ve been recruiting for about 20 years, 18 of that here. I was working with a great firm prior to this, Goldman Sachs, but the hours at the time were rather demanding, north of 90 hours per week.

Part of the thought was, if I’m going to work this hard at something, what can I do that would be as close as possible, if you will, to Warren Harvey, Inc. Ultimately I spoke to the recruiter that placed me at Goldman, learned a little bit more about the industry, and decided to give it a try. Turned out to be a good try — I enjoy what I do very much.

Building companies is one of the top rewards. Nothing for me feels better than to have a group, or department, or even a company, start up and bring in some key executives and support staff. It’s nice to hear the performance stories a year later, three years later. You see them written up in Institutional Investor, or the Journal, or something along those lines. It’s just great, and it affords you the opportunity to meet some extraordinarily bright people with great depth, great ideas. You get an education every day on the job.

And your firm?

WorldBridge Partners is a national search firm with 8 offices across the country…soon to be more. WorldBridge is unique in that we’re a client-centric firm that works on a retained basis, or a contingency basis, as well as custom crafted structures to best meet client objectives, and partner with them throughout the process. At the end of the day, most of our work is done on some type of retained arrangement. The real key is getting to know our clients very well. We take extraordinary measures to meet with key executives and the hiring team to fully understand the drivers for any search, the company culture, mission and goals. We’re all about partnering with our clients, and tend to serve as an extension of them.

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Former financial planner Craig Stocksleger is now a recruiter with Comprehensive (www.comprehensiverecruiting.com), an Arizona firm with a strong business in quantitative analytics.

How did you get into recruiting, and what keeps you here?

When I was in college, I was involved in trading my own account, and was fortunate enough to be fairly successful to pay for some of my tuition. From there, it has just always been a hobby to follow the markets, not only the stock market, but the bond markets and structured credit markets. I went on to be a financial planner, stock broker to retail clients. You always felt like you needed to be available 24/7 to your client. I was actually contacted by a recruiter for an opportunity, and I struck up a conversation with them. He told me a little about recruiting and what he did, and it sounded like something that could be very appealing to me. I would still get to work in the financial markets area, but it would allow a little bit more freedom for me and my career, and the compensation potential was also in line with what I was looking for.

The thing that keeps me in recruiting is not only helping people but the wheeling and dealing and negotiation. Also, I have that natural sales background where I like to prospect and strike up new customer relationships.

Tell us about your practice.

Comprehensive Recruiting works the global financial markets. We currently have seven recruiters, and each has a specialty area that they work in which helps them develop an expertise in that particular niche and also helps them develop very strong relationships with both their customers, our clients, and also the candidates that we serve.

So, we work in all areas of the global markets: from foreign exchange sales and trading, fixed income sales and trading, equity sales trading, research. One of our strong franchises is in quantitative analysis; working with PhD quants that support the various trading desks. We also work in risk-management, compliance and operations. Our clients are the top investment banks as well as the buy-side firms and the large hedge firms.

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We spoke to Tom Kellerhals of the Westminster Group (www.wgpeople.com) about his firm’s distinctive niche: placing sales & marketing professionals in asset management firms. A solid half of his work is in alternative investments.

How did you end up in this line of work?

I started my career in, of all places, the grain industry, working for a soybean-processing company in the Midwest. From there, I turned into a commodity broker, got licensed in securities and was a commodity and stock broker for Dean Whitter. I became very interested in managed futures, CTAs, and went to work for Commodities Corporation, now owned by Goldman Sachs, and one or two other large CTAs.

My wife started a recruiting business 13 years ago, and eight years ago I decided to leave the CTA world and become a recruiter. We’re a very small shop — there’s only five people — and we are in a very narrow niche.

Some of the folks that are in the hedge fund world today actually started their careers in the CTA world. As part of that trend, I started recruiting, not only for CTAs, but for global macros and other hedge funds, and then fund-of-funds. Today half of our business is alternate investment shops, including real estate and private equity. The other half is in the long-only world. We concentrate on marketing, marketing communications, sales, and client service. Unlike many folks in the industry, we go out of our way to distinguish between marketing and sales.

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Making a change in your hedge fund career? Our service makes the process much more effective. Every day our team scours all the online job boards (including both the big ones and the small niche sites) and puts only the best hedge fund job postings in a single database for you. We also provide access to exclusive opportunities posted directly by fund managers and niche recruiters. We then send you this information daily enabling you to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry. We have hundreds of hedge fund jobs carefully edited and organized by category and provide our members with profiles of the top hedge fund recruiters. Once you identify your next career move, our exclusive salary and bonus pay research helps you negotiate the right compensation package.

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