Mod Note (Andy) - as the year comes to an end we're reposting the top discussions from 2015, this one ranks #26 and was originally posted 8/23/2015.

This is far from a definitive guide but should give you a high level overview on how to think about the process. I'll update more topics as I find time.

1) Help Wanted

Openings can be sporadic but a few things to keep in mind. There are always one-off openings throughout the year as new funds/offices/teams launch/grow/churn but a good portion of interview opportunities are happening at the beginning of the year to Q2. By late July expect a slow down as everyone hunkers down towards bonuses. That said, things are evolving as the industry institutionalizes and jr. positions at larger funds are aligning with PE recruitment cycles.

Be aware that some funds will have soft openings where they're willing to talk to people but aren't in a rush to fill the position. I call these 'unicorn openings' because they're looking for superstars that don't exist. It's not a bad idea to talk/network with funds that have soft openings if you want to get a few practice swings in.

2) Mean Girls

Headhunters are great...if your profile fits their checklist of brands (making you a popular cool kid). Assume everything you tell them will be gossiped and any proprietary information you have will leak. You don't tell Mean Girls secrets because you trust them. You give them secrets to get things done. With that in mind don't completely stone wall them when they ask for information. Give them a little so you're helpful but not everything. And just like HS, if one fund likes you, you'll get more interest from the headhunters and other funds.

3) Pattern Matching Algorithms & Secret Backdoor Passwords

First round interviews (usually by phone) are meant to filter candidates, not differentiate them. The person on the phone (who may be inconvenienced that they have to take time out of their day to talk to you) is going to rely heavily on their pattern recognition to quickly identify what they consider a good candidate. Coincidentally they're looking for qualities that tend to match their own backgrounds (lazy lazy interviewer...but I digress). Interviews can be 30 minutes but their decision on your candidacy was probably already made after the first 5 to 10 minutes.

Side Note: IMO each interviewer has a set of trigger words/statements/ideas that will get you moved to the next round or outright dinged. What the dealmakers/dealbreakers are varies by person. Hitting the right triggers is especially important for people who don't have the boilerplate background and need to fight the interviewer's ding bias. If you already look good on paper, you'll likely to get moved to the next round as long as your interview is average and you don't say anything stupid.

There's an interesting bug in the interview process where many interviewers are optimizing towards "will my recommendation of this person to the next round reflect poorly on me if my boss thinks he's a jackass" vs. [insert idealistic view of what the interview process is supposed to be]. The interviewer is not overtly thinking this way but their decision making reflects this.

4) The Story Teller

Maybe it's just me but I think your ability to tell great stories will be as important of a driver in your success as your analytical abilities. This doesn't mean tell BS stories (we all have decent BS detectors) but your ability to tell an authentic story that ties to who you are, how you think, and where you're going will do wonders. I've met all sorts of characters in this business and one thing I notice is they all tell great (war) stories that blends how they look at the world with some ridiculous event [if that makes any sense].

So how does this apply to you during interviews? Stories help turn mechanical answers into organic insights to who you are. Stories help show that you not only grasp the concepts but have command of it. Overall, stories keep people engaged and help them see you're not just parroting answers/concepts. Just be careful that your story doesn't alienate or rub people the wrong way (see deal breaker trigger #3).

Being a good story teller takes some work but it's worth the effort. That said, you might not be the greatest story teller today but a lot of good interviewers will know this and find ways to get your story. Just don't rely on running into many good interviewers.

Having a "good story" can mean a lot of things within the context of an interview. A basic example would be your stock pitch. Being able to turn a normally mundane stock pick into well thought out origin story that highlights how you found the name, why it's interesting, what you see that others don't, and why it's important to pay attention to what you're seeing can go a long way in standing out. Investment meetings would be awful if investors pitched stocks the way they're pitched in interviews. Just make sure you keep things focused and don't meander.

How do you turn a boring boilerplate concept into an interesting story? I don't know but I will say that a lot of directors today borrow heavily from the past (many very boring/mundane) but few frame their reasons for "borrowing" a certain scene/sequence/etc. better than Quentin Tarantino...and more importantly he recreates scenes/moments that simultaneously honors his inspiration and makes it uniquely his own.

Still don't know what to do? One tactic you can use is to get the interviewer to sprinkle in their own anecdotes and/or stories (the ability to ask good questions that gets people to open up is important) and piggyback with your own stories on how you arrived to the same -or different - conclusion. (Also works in dating but I digress...)

5) Mirror, Mirror

The stock pitch is a beauty contest. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but when it comes to beauty contests only the judge's opinion matters. Never forget that. What you personally think is beautiful is secondary to what the judge thinks.

In a perfect world, what you consider a good stock is well aligned with the fund's style but that doesn't change the fact that this is still a courtship. You need to prepare and put your best foot forward.

There are a lot of ways to figure out what stocks an investor considers beautiful and will work well as a stock pitch. The simplest method is to reverse engineer a fund's 13F. It still requires work but can be effective in finding beautiful names. Specifically look at a few of their large winners and losers over time. Figure out / hypothesize what the investment thesis was and how it played it. Pay particular attention to positions that the fund materially ramped up or down. Try to understand the circumstances surrounding the trade. You need to figure what portion of the stock's performance can potentially be explained by analysis (and is repeatable) and what is (bad) luck (and likely avoided or risk adjusted going forward).

A useful diligence hack is to look for write-ups on those winners and losers in the financial press or [insert usual suspect of investment sites]. If you're lucky you might find a good interview that features the stock and the investment thesis.

It's important to know that past winners and losers will impact how an investor looks at prospective ideas. Be mindful of what patterns/biases an investor has because their pattern recognition will - once again - be a factor that can elevate or sink your candidacy.

Once you have a good idea of the sort of investment theses a fund looks for, you should be able to narrow down the type of stocks a fund is looking to invest in. If you're still having a tough time finding ideas, you can look at other funds that have similar positions and see what non-overlapping stocks might be a good fit at the fund you're interviewing at. Just be mindful of the pitfalls of doing this. If you're going to do this, I suggest finding and piggy backing concentrated funds that doesn't churn the portfolio very much and does a lot of primary research.

All that said, funds talk to each other and also keep track of the funds with similar strategies who do good due diligence. You need to be on top of your game if you're mirroring stocks based on the 13F. Odds are the stock you're pitching has already been looked at and the interviewer may know more about that stock than you. Even worse, there's risk that they already decided the stock sucks (it's not beautiful) and you end up swimming with an anchor. On the flip side, it could be a name that the fund is quietly buying/accumulating and you end up swimming with the current.

To be continued...

6) Dating Mr. Market's Daughter

7) Seeing the World through Sherlock's Eyes

8) Rube Goldberg Machine

9) Initiation Ritual

10) The Debate Date

11) Getting Mental

12) On the campaign Trail

13) Dr. Rational, Mr. Hyde

14) LP Charm Offensive