How do I get a job at Pershing Square?
I would sell my soul to work for Bill Ackman. Muscling into a firm like his seems like a super underground thing though.
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All you have to do is share a cab with Bill
Attend a top target, fast forward a few years --> MF PE, Elite HF --> have an X factor compared to your peers --> Network hard. --> if you do everything right you may land an interview, which doesn't even guarantee an offer lmao.
Or you could go on a fishing trip with Ackman. Either way the odds are slim
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Yeah I'll admit Bill Ackman is unbelievably charismatic. I'm in awe at how he can spin any scenario into sounding like it is in his favor. Whenever he makes a good investment, he says "Aren't I brilliant? Keep your money with me." Whenever he screws up, he says, "This investment decision was unfortunately a deviation from our firm's rigorous, fundamentals-based strategy. The fact that a deviation from our philosophy failed miserably shows that our fund's strategy does in fact work very well. Keep your money with me." It works every time.
haha true
My 5 favorite Ackman moments (this started off as 2 but then I started remembering all of the gold mines this guy has done in the past 10 years
1. Betting On Zero. When he's in a church in I believe the inner city of Chicago on Christmas Eve with people who got screwed by Herbalife and is just so grossly out of place (he's clearly just there for the photo op). At one point they're all singing Christmas songs and Ackman has a devious look in his eye when the camera is on him.
2. Leaving his wife for the Russian or French ballerina whose 30 years younger than him.
3. At the beginning of COVID on CNBC he urges everyone to stay home and in the midst of doing so he starts telling people to buy products from companies he has positions in while waiting for things to get back to normal (does not mention one product from a company whose stock he does not own). Always be selling folks!
4. When his bike broke down and he struggled to keep up with other fund managers on a ride he allegedly goes batshit crazy (IIRC he tried to fight one of the guys who tried to help him). Proceeds to just ghost everyone and says nothing to anyone for months before writing a half assed apology (IIRC also announcing his divorce in the process).
5. Another gem from Betting on Zero! After giving his presentation to a room full of people Bill starts walking out of the room and into his private car. Three of his body guards proceed to congratulate him walking by on the presentation and he doesn't acknowledge a single one of them.
6. If you couldn't tell already I love me some Betting on Zero. How arrogant do you have to be to make a documentary starring yourself and distribute it in an effort to prove your short thesis? The only documentary that could possibly top this is Melvin Capital or a fund that got caught up in the GME scenario going out and doubling down by releasing a documentary about why they're right and retail investors are idiots.
I'm replying to my own comment with another Ackman gem.
7. When Pershing had some bad calls a few years ago the NY Times/WSJ does a piece about it and interviews him. He goes on to talk about how much he's learned through the process and about how he had to let go his driver/bodyguard (likely the same guy from Betting on Zero). The horror!
8. In an industry filled with a lot of pretty intelligent people he firmly believes and is able to sell to investors on his superior critical thinking skills relative to everyone else. How much of a psychopath do you have to believe that? That's at least a full Bateman.
Oh damn I have to watch Betting on Zero. I recall in 2017 when I first got into finance and all that I kept seeing the bit about the ADP thing on CNBC and Bloomberg. When I dug deeper into it I pretty much learned about corporate raiding and realized how much power these billionaires have in general in terms of influence.
I love these Ackman stories. I have a friend who went to UMich a few years ago. Somehow a club, TAMID IIRC, managed to get Bill to come on campus to give a speech. That same night, Ben Shapiro came to Ann Arbor to give a speech, and pretty much the entire campus was involved in the Ben Shapiro event, either by promoting/supporting it or rejecting it. All of the campus except for the Ross hardos who went to the Ackman speech. According to my friend, Ackman spent almost the entire evening selling his positions and explaining how he has a superior analysis process to a bunch of UGs. Suffice to say, Ackman truly is one of a kind.
Also, to answer OP’s question, I have no clue how to get a job at Pershing Square. I believe they just hired someone from WP, and there is little turnover there, so I doubt an opportunity will open up anytime soon.
That's Outstanding!
Just saw this when I got out of the shower and have a bonus Ackman gem for you.
9. Publicly complained about being bullied by Carl Icahn early in his career. The feud was ongoing for a few years and is still probably going on, however, I can't believe that I missed this one on my first go around.
He just seems so elitist and ruthless. American psycho is Bill around his hedge fund buddies
Don't glorify this guy, he's not right as often as he claims to be. People remember the big bets that he did right vs. all the stuff he's gotten wrong. Not to say he isn't smart but I don't think he's in the same league as some other investors at their heigh (Paul Tudor Jones / Buffet / Bill Gross / Peter Lynch / etc)
He talks a lot about how he has this super thorough, PE style diligence and only makes 1-2 investments a year. Then proceeds to short Herbalife and go long Valeant showcasing a complete lack of proper due diligence. His March short was incredible and he's a solid investor but agreed, it's easy to overestimate him due to slick marketing.
With other poster. Bill hits and misses fair amount. But man how many of us looked/used the herbalife deck to be like this how you convince people of your idea. I cannot remember how many slides of nonstop gibberish to push Bills view was in it, work of art.
As said when that failed...make a documentary. Ha. Legend.
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