Page 63 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

to Hamilton Bradshaw he wanted to move into private equity.
Normally to get a job in private equity you need to have a
background as an investment banker, or a lawyer, or an account-
ant – and to have been a good one at that.
Will is not an accountant, not a lawyer, not really a banker,

but he is a very strong marketeer. Private equity firms do not
usually hire marketeers because the investment managers
themselves go out and originate the deals. Yet when you look at

the characteristics of an investment manager, the very fact that
they are by training an accountant, a lawyer or a banker means
it is unlikely they will be a good originator. The characteristics
are conflicting.
I met Will, and initially was looking for reasons to turn him

down because he lacked the ‘relevant’ experience. But after
talking to him, I went completely out on a limb and o≠ered him
the job. I am sure no other private equity firm would have hired

him because on paper he was completely wrong for the job, or at
least for the received perception of the job. But what I saw at the
interview was Will’s passion.
I told him, ‘Private equity is about investment and capital and
returns. You haven’t worked for an accounting firm, you haven’t

worked in a bank, and you’ve never run a business. Why would
I hire you?’
But he wouldn’t give up. He kept clutching at every piece of

experience he could find, but in doing that, I saw something
in him. I thought that if he was in front of a potential client he
could convince them that Hamilton Bradshaw would be the right
partner for them. He had plenty of passion, and bags of belief.

51 passion