Hedge Fund Interview - Ghosted???
Would like to get the community's take on where I stand in this interview process.
I've been in IB for the past 3.5 years (GS/MS/JPM) with a top group and have been interviewing for investor roles at various hedge funds. I came across a PM at a large multi-strat fund who shared a background with me (same college, same bank) and we hit it off very well in the first interview. He is building out a new pod and is the only PM in the pod with no juniors and so is looking to bring on an extra person to help him out.
The interview process has just been between the PM, his assistant, and myself and went as outlined below –
1) 1hr phone call, mostly fit based questions and discussing the role and our backgrounds - went very well
2) Modeling test - 1hr test basically to see if I understood how the 3 financial statements linked up. Submitted and then we never discussed and just moved on to the case
3) Asked me to prep an investment thesis for a software Company. I had a week to do so and built out a full company model, included a comps analysis, DCF, & LBO (relevant bc of a potential buyout from a large shareholder and LBOs were trending in this industry; he also suggested it). Wrote up an 11pg thesis and submitted it. He thanked me very much for the effort and said he'll reach back out once he's reviewed and we'd discuss the thesis
Next Steps: After I submitted the case he also mentioned that depending on the case, I would need to talk to a very senior PM and an equity manager and then we'd meet for lunch/dinner.
I haven't heard back now for 3 weeks but after the 1st week he emailed me saying he had been very busy traveling and hadn't had time to review. 2 weeks later I haven't heard back and I followed up with the assistant last Friday. The assistant said she'd reach out to him and let me know if she's heard anything, but now it's Wednesday of the following week and still nothing.
TLDR: Ghosted by a PM after submitting a full investment thesis, not sure if I should just move on or continue to follow-up and chase. Is this common in the industry? Don't really know a lot about the dynamics of HF interview processes and how PMs can be
Nothing more you can do, if he really wanted to speak to you he would. Follow up in another two weeks for your peace of mind, but ghosting happens all the time now. Sucks, but that’s where things have take a turn for.
Yeah I mean I'd generally be okay with it but to be ghosted with no feedback on the case & model I submitted to him (which took A LOT of extra time and effort) seems weird to me. I still have some hope that maybe he's just been slammed and I'm lower priority
Maybe he was just looking for free research cause he is too stupid to come up with original ideas?
One of my friends also joked that maybe he needed a jumpstart on the name he asked me to look at and just took my work and ghosted me. Seems silly but the longer I'm in the dark the more I can't help shake that thought lol
Ghosting is pretty common, unfortunately. agree with earlier poster that you should follow up one more time but I’d move on mentally.
whether he just interviewed you to try to get some free work done is impossible to say. Plenty of people have done it before but unless you know that this PM has done it in the past, I would just assume that it wasn’t a fit and move on.
I've been ghosted for 4 weeks more than 2 times and it ended up going well. It is very common. Do follow up, you've got nothing to lose.
I have gone through a few processes now- hard to believe it was for “free research” from what you said but that’s me. As others have said, it’s a somewhat unstructured process run primarily by the PM. They get quite busy and whatever topic of the day takes priority. Next thing tends to be they start to weigh options and want to make sure they are meeting at least another 1-2 candidates.
I Have been ghosted before- never after a case- but yea it really sucks, especially for all the work you put in. My gut says he’s going to get back to you eventually (I have had to wait 4-6 weeks before getting a positive response in the past), so the fact that the assistant just responded last Friday and we are heading into holiday weekend, I would just try your best to patient.
Take it as a learning experience and reach other later on but do not think a PM simply wants research. Taking the time to even setup an appropriate test and case requires time and resources no one does that for fun. The hiring process and can be random and at times take months, especially if they lack resources and need to ramp up fast to prove they get resources. This PM could even in 6 months time send your profile to someone who knows who reach out to you (we do this all the time). Life is random.
For instance, very likely the "Sr PM" got his thoughts back and said to the new PM "this person is too junior for you, I suggest you see if we can pay up for someone with more experience for now". What does a PM do then? In perfect world someone in the firm can interview other people and then they can decide over you if its worth it. In reality they are so busy and say eff it "joey wants a sr guy, good luck finding a sr guy in this market" and just put their head down and start doing the work themselves while also causally seeing if any "magical sr analyst shows up". After a while they have things built out further and can now say "listen joey, frank from that case is really our guy, I already have xyz abc done now and really he can fill the gap lets go get him", "you are right, things are rolling lets go get that guy". Or anything like that.
Ghosting in general sucks, but sometimes when you do not know what to say to the candidate you just put it on back burner. Worst thing in the world is to say, hey I really like you, you seem like a great fit but my hands are tied for now etc...Providing direct feedback versus keeping door open at times is a lot easier. This industry again is random.
Btw, I was ghosted plenty in my career. One time I interviewed 5 times with a firm, after a partner interview they ghosted me. Years later the same firm, same partner wanted to see if I fit again (aka process was not in his control back then).
Well to close the loop I'll update on the remainder of the process:
1) I followed up with the PM's assistant 2 weeks later, she said she'd check in with him and revert – no reply
2) I followed up with the assistant again at the end of July saying that if I didn't hear back from the PM I'd move forward assuming the process closed – she replied with a "so sorry, we'll get back to you very soon with the result" which confused me because I had assumed it was over at this point... apparently not
3) Had to follow up again 1 week later only to be told that they were not moving forward with me. They provided absolutely no feedback on the investment thesis and model I submitted which took a week of work to complete
I have to say this is probably the most unprofessional process I've ever been through. Very disappointed but at least can focus on the present again
You absolutely dodged a bullet. You will be with a better shop in no time.
Hey I mean they got back to you! Better than being totally ghosted. Jokes aside, that truly sucks to go through all that effort on the case and not even a debrief or scrape of feedback. I waited 2 months this year for a place to get back to me, telling me the case study materials were still incoming, and then just never heard back. Been another 4-5 months later and still looks like they never hired anyone from as far as I can tell. Got through 3-4 rounds at a bank and then ghosted. Crazy these places are so cool with ghosting, but it seems to be the norm for rejections more often than not these days, with the rejections coming only because you reached out 2 weeks after they told you a response was coming anyways.
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