I just read a PBS listing for a hedge fund that specified only applicants with 2-3 years at a top tier investment bank or hedge fund/private equity would be considered. Yay. That's one more cover letter I don't need to waste my time on. On the other hand, give me a fucking break. This is rare but I've run into it before. While this is obviously the company's prerogative, I have to admit it irks me a bit. I can understand wanting experience, virtually all hedge funds do and I don't blame them, but the top tier bit is annoying. Perhaps you can tell I'm not of a "top tier" firm ... laugh.
Today was the first meeting of my Managing the Workforce class which I am looking forward to even more now. I love that Chicago makes their "HR" class a Economics course. It's especially interesting to have a course dedicated to the world of recruiting and managing labor while in the throes of my own internship hunt. Anyhow, one of the points mentioned in the lecture today was about how firms use credentials to help them sort out candidates - as demonstrated explicitly by the posting mentioned above. The other idea mentioned, which is much harder to wrap my mind around, is that it actually makes better financial sense for a firm to hire a risky candidate than a safe candidate if the expected average return on the two candidates is the same. (Yep, this is HR ala GSB.) This would be the opposite tactic of said hedge fund above but a tactic that warms my upstart heart.
I find that the single most characteristic I'm looking for, aside from geography, is niceness. I just want to work with nice people. I just don't have the ability I had when I was young and "hungry" to put up with all the bullshit - the hazing that goes on in some of these security firms, the chest beating, the yelling, the cursing, the jokes about porn and outings to strip clubs. I've worked with some lovely people but I've worked plenty of not so well behaved people. And I'm just not in the mood for it. If they ask you if you have a thick skin in the interview ... that's not a good sign. I can have a thick skin but I'd prefer that it not be a job requirement.
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Hi, I am the father of a 10 month old, an Investment Management aspirant and a GSB Waitlister waitling for good news later this year.
I was wondering if I could write to you directly. Your experiences with both IM recruitment and juggling school & baby will be very valuable to me. At this point, my focus is on making the best possible use of the next 6 months so that I can hit the ground running when pre-term begins. Would be great to get your views on this. My email ID is jayant_kd@yahoo.com. If its ok with you, just ping me at that ID and I'll write back.
Thanks
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