Dining at the Buffett

Networking is likely the most frustrating aspect of breaking into finance for young monkeys in this day and age. After all, if you didn't go to a target school, didn't come out of the womb day dreaming about comps and DCFs, haven't been running your own monopoly money fund since grade school...you have to get out there and pound the pavement. Whether it's LinkedIn stalking, desperate cold emails or harassing every single family friend, relative and professor for introductions the task can be arduous and many do not have what it takes to make it.

Sadly, today I will not be suggesting a remedy. No cure to the who you know or who you blow syndrome has yet been discovered. All I can tell you is that at least you are not alone. Ted Weschler, the newest addition to the Berkshire Hathaway investment team, has spent close to $5.3 million dollars in order to network with the Oracle of Omaha.

Now, the last thing I am advising a bunch of college guys to do is start asking out MDs to expensive dinner dates in the hopes of securing a gig. What I am trying to enlighten you to is the penultimate value of face time and how it can accomplish the seemingly impossible. Here's the brief story of how Weschler made his way on to the Berkshire team. This position, which most hedge fund honchos would kill for is not one that comes open to often. In fact, if becoming a wealthy money mogul is like being a priest, landing a gig at Berkshire is like getting sainted. So don't despair if you haven't gotten to where you want to be as of yet. Most importantly, do not feel dumb, awkward or strange to go after what you want no matter what others think. Somewhere out there is a decision maker at a BB who would hire a lamp post wearing a top hat if it could point him to a pizzeria that uses real buffalo mozzarella...

In the first year of the lunch, 2000, the winner donated $25,000 to Glide. The auction price then proceeded to skyrocket, and in 2010, an anonymous bidder won with an amazing $2,626,311 bid.

Then, this year, a bidder also wishing to be anonymous won by upping that bid by $100, to $2,626,411.

So here, in a state of affairs being disclosed publicly for the first time, is the fact: Weschler was the winning bidder in both years.

In neither year, since he was trying to stay under the radar, did he wish to have lunch in New York, whose Smith & Wollensky steakhouse has usually hosted the lunch -- and given generously to Glide itself.

The lunch (or dinners, as they turned out to be) were instead held in both years, at Weschler's request, in Omaha. Buffett picked the site, one of his favorite restaurants, Piccolo's (whose ambiance is pervasively casual).

Meeting in July, 2010 for the $2,626,311 dinner, the two men liked each other right away. Buffett learned about Weschler's investment success and how he achieved it—the 'how' being as important to Buffett as the gains themselves.

At Buffett's invitation, Weschler later came to the 2011 Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) annual meeting, held last spring. At a large private dinner on the night of the meeting, he introduced himself to this reporter, made an impression as smart and friendly, and described himself as having a great time.

And then, at this year's Glide dinner, held July 26th, Buffett almost apologetically sounded out Weschler about the possibility of his joining Berkshire. "I very much wanted him to do it, but I didn't expect to get very far with the idea," Buffett told Fortune.

"Ted will no doubt make a lot of money at Berkshire. But he was already making a lot of money with his fund -- you can get an idea of that from the size of his Glide bids -- so money wasn't a reason for him to come."