How is Activist Defense in IB Viewed?
Have been applying to HFs straight out of a decent BB IB, and have been passed on for an interview because they'd rather interview someone in an investing seat than IB, which I get. But recently a HH said the feedback they got was I didn't have enough demonstrated public markets interest, even though they were interviewing other IB candidates. I am wondering if swapping out a M&A deal from my resume with an activist defense experience would help me be a better candidate?
My personal account is just all ETFs (because of restrictions on individual stocks in IB) and I was never in a stock-picking club in college (was focused on engineering clubs & sports at the time). I have full sections on a few M&A deals on my resume from my current group, but when I was a first year I did some activist defense work that was related to my group. Would this help demonstrate my interest in public markets if I swap out a M&A deal with this? I never put it on my resume because I didn't do any modeling for it, was mostly tracking ADTV and helping spread historical shareholder campaigns by our activist, and taking notes on calls during negotiations, etc. so it felt more qualitative than quantitative.
Does anyone know if L/S equity HFs (or activist HFs) will view that experience is super interesting / relevant and want to talk about it? Or is what I'm missing truly just a stock-picking competition from college or something along those lines?
I think it adds good flavour if you’re applying specifically for any event driven role. What do you lose if you swap this in? I can imagine senior PMs in the SM L/S world being interested in activist events. They make good headline stories. If you’re applying to an MM, don’t bother.
You could try to parlay the defense into a job with an activist HF. If you know defense you can go on offense.
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