I had been having a crazy schedule because of recruiting, because I dropped my resume everywhere and got a lot of interviews. What I realized that never came across my mind before is that interviewers really have different agenda in recruiting; some are looking for smart and driven individuals who are passionate about the job/market while others are looking characteristics written on the back of their notebooks. But wouldn’t it make more sense for the recruiter/interviewer to share a matched proportion of a candidate’s bonus so their interests and their employers’ interests are aligned? I guess that’s why it makes sense to have headhunters.
Now, I’ve got both banking and sales and trading offers so am more relaxed now, after a week’s frenzies. One thing I learned in my superday on last Friday was actually very interesting. I talked the director of prime services and risks in a bulge bracket bank. He used to have his own fund, macro net long, which made him considerably more interesting to talk to. I asked him as director of prime brokerage services how he hedges his exposures to different positions different funds under different circumstances, e.g. Egypt unrest. He answered that he basically had his team screening through all the hedge funds’ positions to see if they were exposed to Egypt, and if so, how concentrated their positions are and how big they are. Then reach out to them if the bank thinks they are in danger. Of course, the bank is not able the think; it’s him who makes the decision. Therefore, it’s still a matter of subjective judgment and decision making, just as in every other aspect of life. I also asked him when would he call margin or kick a fund out of his portfolio. His answer was very vague. He said it was a combination of how “big” the client is and “how are they operating.” I pushed for a more specific answer and he gave me a better one, saying that it’s very hard to quantify the credit of their clients but if they happen to use the liquidity they can access in prime brokerage by setting up a shell fund to support its subordinate PE business, then they might have crossed the line. That was very interesting to learn.
