GSA Capital that bad

What is your opinion and experience with GSA Capital? Where would you rate them relative to other hedge funds?

I had an interview with them and I'm absolutely shocked by the people I met. First, all apart from one were totally antisocial. One fidgeted each time I looked at him. Another would not look me in the eyes during the whole conversation unless I looked away from him - the only time I saw in my peripheral vision he looked at me. The most senior person I met was an equities expert who is now trading options which seemed to be above his head - I had to explain to him a concept he'd never heard of before.

All of them, barely interviewed me and were basically just trying to find out details of how we did things at my current employer. When I asked them how they did things they were reserved but from what they said, I wasn't impressed. At one interview with one guy, at some point I though we should probably talk about a consultation fee if we are to continue considering the time went in him telling me how they do stuff and me telling him why they shouldn't do it this way.

What really put me off was that I left with the impression that this is an office where if one was to make a joke, either nobody would laugh or you'll end up with an HR case. I've always held GSA capital in high regard but when I think about it, this high regard is really based on nothing more than them being the first hedge fund that approached me out of uni. I've also heard similar stories from colleagues including one who walked out of a shambolic interview and another one who was asked a question which the interviewer got wrong himself.

Is GSA that bad? Are they doing well past few years? They looked a bit desperate to find out how to do stuff but I've always thought they are a great fund.

 

not sure what all this GSA bashing is about. I talked to several of their partners and top management and they are far from unprofessional. In general the place seemed pretty well organised and they are definitely quite innovative. I also talked to some people who left the firm and while of course everyone who leaves has some individual issues the general tone was positive. This was in the course of evaluating an offer, by the way, so I did not take my research lightly. I ended up not taking the offer, because the firm I worked for promoted me into a very attractive role, but very likely would have taken it otherwise. There are places that are very aggressive to leavers in terms of legal threats etc. but from what I have heard GSA is not one of them. Statements like "not worth the lawsuit" or "have your employment lawyers ready" don't sound like they are backed up by any actual facts.

 

they are getting sued for standard practices in interviewing potential PMs, from what it seems. I interviewed at a few places and of course you need to disclose something about the strats you want to run. It is always up to you to decide how much you want to tell them. By the way, Citadel got countersued by GSA for having interviewed one of their employees pretty much the same way.

 

Standard Practice is for a hf to encourage the use of WhatsApp to hide plans??

Strongly disagree. Yes, the hf industry can be shady and some hiring practices can be on the aggressive side, but encouraging the use of WhatsApp, even in the Quant space, is certainly not "standard practice"

Further, I can think of several prominent hfs that have overstaffed their compliance departments so much that they bend over backwards to make sure new hires/candidates would not do this type of thing. At the very least they certainly would not encourage it or be complicit in it like GSA Capital was.

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