Referred to a hedge funds, unsure about motivational letter
I cold called several hedgefunds and eventually one was interested in offering me an internship. However, it is entirely unsure what this possible internship will let me do. I was asked to write a motivational letter and after writing many drafts I am absolutely not happy with it. Also hours of searching on the internet have not been helpful at all.
I was just wondering, does anyone here have some advice about what to talk about in a motivational letter for a hedge fund that might be able to offer me an internship, but the role in the internship is entirely unknown. I am really not sure what to talk about, other than in a very broad way.
Thanks a lot.
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Thanks for replying. The firm provides services to institutional investors, launches and manages equity/fixed income and mutual funds, and is mostly long only focused. They use traditional analysis to construct their portfolios, using first principles (judgment and primary research to set asset allocation).
Thanks for the advice.
A few questions that you could answer: What do you hope to seek out of the job? What motivates you to invest or have interest in the public markets? How will this HF help you accomplish your career goals? How are you a fit at the firm?
Also, are you still in college? And roughly how big (in terms of AUM) is this firm?
Thank you those are good questions.
Am still in college but will graduate soon. According to the website the firm manages roughly 14 billion.
Wow, congrats. Landing something at a $14B AUM HF for someone still in college is a really good opportunity... assuming it's a front office type role like you're hoping for. That would most likely make it a top 100 fund worldwide.
I've never heard the term motivational letter, per se, but it seems like perhaps they're trying to get a feel for how to structure your role...? Did you have an interview and submit your resume before they requested this letter?
The chance of landing it are still very small though haha. No I sent them a letter giving some background info and then the person asked me to send a letter and motivation letter (cover letter I guess).
Well I guess keep at it until you're in somewhere, whether it's at the fund under consideration now or elsewhere.
Are you literally calling up a list of HF's or mixing in some cold emailing as well?
I find cold calling to not be that effective. And personally I just kind of hate doing that. But it's a viable tactic nonetheless. Cold emailing naturally has a very low success rate as well. But people will respond provided that the message is short and to the point. I find that volume is key, by literally sending out hundreds of emails. It comes down to letting people know you exist and see who bites.
Emailing, find calling too awkward haha. Just emailing everything and sometimes try to look for someone working there that might have something with me in common (country, university, hobbies, interests etc)
Yeah, cold calling is tough.
I've found the most effective thing is just to cold email as many people as you can. Find the general email format of the company, look up employees in relevant senior positions at the company on LinkedIn, and fire away. Some people limit emails exclusively to alumni, but I've never understood that. They might be more likely to respond than non-alumni, but it's tough especially if you're not at a university where there's a ton of alumni in whatever industry you're trying to get into. I go to a respectable school, but there are no finance courses, and it's too small and too far from Wall Street to really have much of anybody in high finance.
Are you including the resume in your emails? Some might find it too aggressive and be put off from trying to be "used," but if you're reaching out it's no secret that you're looking for a job anyway. And if you're a senior you don't really have time to develop relationships anyway. If they don't respond, then you lost nothing anyway, aside from the time you spent sending the email.
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