An ex-investment banker encourages some introspection. More

Analysts with seven to ten years of experience are in high demand in the current market, as are people with high-yield and distressed investing experience.
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What’s it like working for a hedge fund … in Tokyo? Read on.

Q: Do you speak Japanese? Do you need to?
A: Speaking the local lingo certainly helps although it is a very difficult language to master for a foreigner like myself. Speaking some Japanese certainly helps when ordering drinks or telling the cab driver where you want to go. In Tokyo most streets have no names so it is crucial to be able to describe the way to the taxi driver if you want to make it home after a night in Roppongi.

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What do you have in common with reporters, that strange tribe of the socially awkward, badly dressed and sometimes smelly? Nothing, but one FT reporter suggests you should find some common ground, and to do it soon. More

Two hedge funds managers made more than $1 billion in ‘05, according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha Magazine (sub req, here’s a piece from Marketwatch). Pay was up 45% from 2004.

1. $1.5 BN: James Simons, Renaissance Technologies Corp.
2. $1.4 BN: T. Boone Pickens, BP Capital
3. $840 MM: George Soros
4. $550 MM: Steven Cohen
5. $500 MM: Paul Tudor Jones II

Average of top 26 managers: $363 MM.