The office was as quiet as the train. I stepped past an empty seating lounge and found myself in the midst of a large room full of cubicles.
“You must be Kai! Thanks for coming! I’m Dennis.”
I turned around and saw a man walk out of a private corner office. He was middle aged, dressed in a short-sleeve polo and preppy green pants. As he came closer, he said, “You didn’t have to get so dressed up! It’s like a 100 degrees outside, man. Tomorrow just wear whatever you’d like.”
Embarrassed, I looked down at my attire. Blazer, pressed khaki pants, dress shirt, black shoes and a silk tie...hopefully Dennis didn’t see the sweat marks I had accumulated whilst walking.
I smiled at him and shook his hand. “That’s fine by me! It’s very nice to meet you. Thank you for having me.”
Dennis led me into a conference room. He sat me down and started unwrapping a Nature Valley granola bar. “So do you know the difference between a stock and a bond?” he asked.
“Owning a stock means you own a share of the company,” I responded, trying to sound as confident as possible. “A bond is basically a loan.”
While I was talking about bonds, he busied himself by dusting the granola bar crumbs off the table. He would meticulously sort every fragment into small piles before swiping them off the table.
“Good,” he said when I finished. “But that’s just the beginning.”
Over the next hour, I learned more about finance than I had in my entire life - and my mom works in the industry. Dennis explained to me everything from debt versus equity to CLOs (Collateralized Loan Obligations) to negative interest rates. He was a very good teacher; if I didn’t understand a concept, he would spot my confusion immediately and restart. I learned about the hedge fund itself - how much money they manage, how many employees, what strategies they use and what deals they were currently working on. I was amazed that Dennis would take the time out of his day (after all, he’s a co-founder of the company) to chat with a naive high school intern.
In the following days I became immersed in the world of finance. I sat next to the only TV in the office, which always had on Bloomberg Markets. I read the news during the morning train ride, and in the evening I would read whatever packet Dennis had emailed me as the night’s ‘homework’. He would treat me to lunch every day, where he would quiz me and answer any questions I had compiled.
I did have some laborious tasks - typical of what you’d expect as an intern. One day I spent a few hours inputting data from business cards into an Excel spreadsheet, and afterwords I scanned about 500 pages of last year’s bills. But more often than not, I was gaining invaluable learning experiences. Every day I met a different employee. They told me about their background, their career interests, how they fit into the company, and any advice they had. A coworker sitting next to me was working on a deal with a mortgage company in Nigeria, another told me about technical analysis techniques such as the Elliott wave principle, and another was constantly Skyping a director from Rothschild in Europe.
I took advantage of the opportunities I was given. I came to work with a proactive mindset. Despite being decades younger than most employees, I felt like I was making contributions. When people think of hedge funds, they conjure up impressions of tension-filled environments filled with corrupt and calculating people. I found just the opposite; I felt welcomed and engaged at all times. I acquired knowledge about not just finance but work life in general. As I watched people conduct their daily affairs, I found one common trait that everyone shared: enthusiasm. Working 12 hours a day isn’t easy, but if you have a deep and developed interest, productivity and happiness will inevitably follow.
Link to Part One: My Experience as a Hedge Fund Intern (Part One)