One of my favorite stocks, and a long-time holding, is a company that this fund recently added to their portfolio. Is it OK to pitch it to them, given our theses might be very closely aligned and not much room for discussion? I have other names that would open more discussion, but have less conviction in them. Curious to hear WSO's thoughts.
Thanks
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Just expect to be grilled extremely intricately, given they are invested they have done the relevant analysis.
Always best to pitch stocks the interviewers like (my experience having interviewed at funds 20+ times and now interviewing others). Interviewers want people that think like them, which can be molded into THEIR investment process, even though most say they "value diverse opinions" -> truth is that is only valid when you're already a team member. Public equity hiring leans into hiring the lowest-risk candidate.
This is very helpful - thank you. This is for a superday with ~5 interviews so I am wondering if I should pitch a different company for each interview or stick with the same. I have enough breadth to pitch 5 companies clearly but not sure if it is necessary.
Just pitch another if they ask to. They should be able to grill you hard on the first co because they prob have done much deeper research than you, respectfully speaking.
I meant across interviews. Like 1 stock with person X, another stock with person Y
My take is that it is not necessarily bad, but the risk/reward is kind of bad. As a side note, it also sort of depends on the fund's strategy and process, if this is a stock you have held / liked for a long time, I would want to make sure this fund is a long term holder type place, otherwise you might risk having a different view/time frame all together. This is not 100p accurate, just a possibility when you mentioned it is a long time holding. Sometimes if it is a sector focused position, they will want to see you demonstrate your coverage here so it can also be beneficial.
I think the risk is the fund is already super up to speed on the name and in the weeds, and that they have a specific view point / variant view and catalyst. So you run the risk of having a view that either misses that all together, or focuses on a separate thing, in which case you are betting on the fact that you did a better job than them at connecting the dots and can convince them that your points were superior. Also runs the risk of them bringing up a threat/new angle and you having missed that side completely or not having an opinion one way or another. Doesn't mean you'll fail, and it can lead to a very thoughtful discussion where they appreciate your work on the name + industry, but I wanted to point it out.
So I think it just invites a potentially higher level of scrutiny and risk that you may be missing something, when ideally the purpose for early pitches is to 1) determine if you know the difference between a good thesis and bad thesis 2) can highlight the key things that matter and demonstrate some fact finding /research capabilities/ synthesis capabilities, and 3) your ability to communicate effectively. This can flow through deeper into totally breaking your investment idea and analyzing the completeness of your ability to analyze stocks and businesses, but in my experience that gets reserved for later stage discussions and the case study (could be different for others though).
It doesn't mean you can't pitch it, just some things to be conscious of. In fact, early interview pitching seems to be the only time in this biz where it can potentially be less about making money and more about your ability to flex stuff. Now for a mid-level hire or someone with more experience already, I think it gets more targeted on "can this make me money" right now and how well do they know this industry, but again my experience here has been you want to illustrate you get the game more than anything else, while also avoiding opportunities for them to smoke you out too much.
Thank you for the guidance! This is for a superday at an LO shop. They briefly talked abt their reason behind the investment in their last investor letter and it’s pretty much the same as my thought process.
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