DoubleLine CEO and reigning bond king Jeffrey Gundlach doesn’t like to hire strangers with tons of work experience.
“I generally like to hire people who either I know or who know nothing,” he said in a conversation with Yahoo Finance’s Julia La Roche. “I don't like bringing in people from other firms who have eight years' experience because they've learned some other way.”
Gundlach added that fresh graduates were a choice pick “because that way they don’t have to be untrained, from what they thought they learned somewhere else.”
Once you’re at the firm, prepare for a culture that differs from the cut-throat nature that one assumes about the financial firms riddling Wall Street.
‘Everything that goes right, the team did it. Everything that goes wrong, it’s my fault.’
Over the years, Gundlach has tried to tried to instill a sense of camaraderie among his employees by promoting the idea of “shared success,” which includes shouldering the responsibility for mistakes.
This mission has led to a strong sense of loyalty among his employees.
The late Bonnie Baha, who used to head DoubleLine’s global credit division, wrote of Gundlach in an article almost a decade ago: “He is honest; some would say bluntly so. He treats people fairly. His rather healthy ego has an advantageous side effect in that he makes opportunities available to his employees that less self-assured managers would be hesitant to proffer. And there is no one who has demonstrated more remarkable presence of mind in a time of crisis.”
“Everyone has a voice,” said deputy chief investment officer Jeffrey Sherman in an interview with Kiplinger. In meetings, “Jeffrey wants people to speak up and hash it out,” added fund manager Bill Campbell. “No question is a bad question, and no comment is a bad comment.”
“It kinda comes from the top, because I never yell at anybody,” explained Gundlach told Yahoo Finance. “My philosophy is everything that goes right, the team did it. Everything that goes wrong, it’s my fault. I think that people appreciate that.”
[Full transcript of Jeffrey Gundlach’s extended conversation with Yahoo Finance]
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Aarthi is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami.
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