Program At A Glance
The Ewing Morris Fellowship is a program designed to provide aspiring investment professionals with an opportunity to gain investment experience and skills that can help them break into the industry. A successful candidate should expect to work closely with members of our investment team on a wide range of projects, with a particular focus on publicly listed businesses.
How is the Ewing Morris Fellowship different from traditional internship programs?
Structure
We designed our program with the intent of providing you with the highest return on your time. This means that the tasks you are expected to perform will not only benefit Ewing Morris, but will also help you develop as an investment professional. While throwing a student in the deep end might work in some instances, we don’t believe this approach is reliable in developing thoughtful investment professionals. Instead, we provide you with detailed guidance on how to produce quality work.
Feedback
You can expect clear and timely feedback on the quality of the work you produce. Additionally, you will have the personal satisfaction of seeing the fruits of your labour. For example, this can include participation in management meetings with companies on which you have completed background investment research. Additionally, you can expect to spend one-on-one time with portfolio managers weekly, to discuss any topic of interest to you.
Become A Part Of The Community
We make a concerted effort to build a community where you can interact and learn from former EM Fellows.
Some of the qualities we look for in aspiring candidates:
Integrity
Without integrity all other qualities below become a liability.
Demonstrated Passion And Perseverance
Our experience tells us that although the vast majority of applicants will claim to be “passionate about investing”, only a small fraction (less than 5%) can actually support their claim with past actions. Almost always, this misrepresentation is not deliberate – but simply a function of not knowing what being passionate about something means. Below is our adoption of a famous Rafael Ortiz quote that comes close to our understanding of passion: “Passion is not about finding something to do, it is about finding something you can’t do without” Being passionate about something is a great start. But one also needs perseverance to stick with the passion through the inevitable trials that will arise along the way. We understand that many candidates might not have sufficient experience in capital markets to know if this is something that they can be passionate about. In this case, the ability to demonstrate passion and perseverance in some other pursuit will be valuable.
Intellectual Humility
An ideal candidate will not have “all the answers”, instead they identify gaps in their knowledge and proceed to fill them. During the interview process, we often meet candidates who have been conditioned to avoid the words “I don’t know” like a plague. We believe, on the other hand, that admitting ignorance is the first step towards gaining new knowledge. Our observation has been that most successful people remain open to the possibility that they might be wrong, even when they think they have the answer. This quality is probably best summarized by the following quote often attributed to John Maynard Keynes: “When the facts change, I change my mind, what do you do, Sir?”
Curiosity
A trait shared by many successful people is innate curiosity about the world around them. We are looking for candidates who are not satisfied with the status quo – and always look to make themselves and the people around them better.
Technical Skills
Candidates looking to improve their odds of admission should have / develop the following skills:
a. Basic Accounting knowledge: There’s no need to major in accounting, just read and understand a basic Accounting textbook or explore a number of online resources available on the topic (Khan Academy has a collection of video on the topic that will be helpful) b. Intermediate Excel proficiency: There’s no need to take an expensive modeling course because there are many free resources covering the use of Excel. Macro knowledge is not a requirement. When it comes to models, we spend 95% of the time thinking about inputs and 5% about how pretty our model looks. c. Good written and oral communication skills. d. Prior experience with Bloomberg or Capital IQ is an asset, but not a requirement.
Program Duration
Four months, starting every January, May, and September. We have designed this to be a rotating program: this, means, as general rule, that we do not offer an opportunity for multiple terms. It would be natural for us to use Alumni assets to fill any future full-time employment opportunities. However, given the uncertain timing of when such opportunities become available, a candidate should assume a very low base rate for a full-time position upon graduating from the program.
Expected Workload
Although our primary concern is with the quality of output, we have generally found that a minimum 60-80 hours a week is necessary for a candidate to produce output of desired quantity. Monetary Compensation: Modest
Recruitment
Recruitment Process
Your application package should include the following:
1. Resume 2. Transcript 3. Research report: a. The report should focus on a specific business and convey the author’s understating of the business model, business economics and business valuation. A report should also include an investment recommendation. Note: No preference will be given to Buy/Hold/Sell recommendations. b. Presentation decks will not be accepted. c. The format of the report (number of pages, content etc.) is left up to the applicant. Preference will be given to those applicants who produce a report specifically for Ewing Morris – as opposed to recycling an old school project.
The application package should be addressed to: Alexandre Ryzhikov at: aryzhikov@ewingmorris.com The email title should follow the following convention (note that emails that fail to follow the convention will not considered): EM Fellowship Application – Candidate’s Name – Term that you are applying for Example: EM Fellowship Application – Alexandre Ryzhikov – January 2019
Although the time it takes to fill a position does vary, we aim to have the position filled at least four months in advance. We encourage applicants to apply early. Given the volume of applications, we cannot guarantee a response to every application. We appreciate your interest in the Fellowship.