Why Fortress Investment Group: Interviews, Careers, & Portfolio

Fortress Investment Group Overview

Fortress Investment Group is an investment management firm located in New York City, USA. The firm was founded by Wes Edens, Randal Nardone, and Rob Kauffman as a private equity firm in 1998.

Fortress specializes in asset-based investing. Their expertise extends to financing, pricing, owning, and overseeing the management of financial assets ranging from financial assets and capital assets to real estate.

When Fortress was launched on the New York Stock Exchange in February 2007, it was the first private equity firm to be traded publicly in the US.

In December 2017, Softbank Group fully acquired Fortress, which resulted in the firm being delisted from NYSE and returning back to being a privately held company.

In May 2023, Mubadala Investment Co had acquired a majority stake in Fortress from Softbank for an undisclosed amount.

Fortress Investment Group AUM

According to the firm’s official website, Fortress Investment Group manages $46.2 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2023.

Fortress Investment Group Interview Process & Questions

Each candidate may go through a slightly different interview process. However, if you interview at Fortress Investment Group, you can expect the following:

• Entire process lasts several weeks – unless it’s on-campus or on-cycle recruiting
• Junior investment professionals handles the first few rounds of interviews, while the more senior staff supervise the rest
• There will be around 4 to 6 rounds of interviews

The type of questions generally fall under these categories: technical/investing, behavioral, and fit questions.

Check out my course if you need help preparing for such interviews.

Why Fortress Investment Group

“Why this firm” always shows up during interviews because firms want to know the motive behind your application and see whether you’d be a good fit.

If you’ve met people from the firm during your networking efforts, tell the interviewers how they’ve made a really good impression on you and how their experiences at the firm positively influenced your decision to join the firm.

Also, it’s a good practice to know more about the firm. For this, I recommend listening to interviews with its key personnels – founders, investors, management teams, and so on.

Here’s an interview with Wes Edens, Fortress Investment Group Co-Founder:

More Interviews

• Wes Edens joins “Squawk Alley” to discuss markets and the investing environment
• Interview with Mike Novogratz, former Partner and President of Fortress Investment Group

Fortress Investment Group Case Study

Two traits that are important to firms like Fortress Investment Group: good communication skills and high level technical knowledge. To assess these, firms almost always ask candidates to perform case studies.

Most case studies are about recommending investments and performing financial modeling. However, a cold calling case study may also be necessary for junior roles.

Check my Growth Equity Interview Guide to better prepare for case studies.

Fortress Investment Group Salary & Compensation

According to Glassdoor, you can earn around $118K per year as an analyst at Fortress Investment Group, and $155K per year if you’re an associate. These figures may vary based on an individual’s experiences, level of education, and other factors.

Analyst

Associate

Fortress Investment Group Careers, Jobs, & Internships

Visit our job board to see open roles at Fortress Investment Group and other similar firms.

Fortress Investment Group Portfolio & Investments

As per Crunchbase, Fortress Investment Group has made 20 investments across six funds. Some of their notable deals include Vice Media, SAPI, and Beyond Finance.

Notable Transaction: AURA Network Systems

AURA Network Systems (short for “Advanced Ultra Reliable Aviation”) empowers the aerospace industry’s tech solutions which help improve the safety and accessibility and drive economic expansion – while transforming the crewed and uncrewed concept of aviation.

In November 2022, following the success of its proprietary network specifically designed to enable remotely piloted flights BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight), AURA closed $75 million in funding – $55 of which came from Fortress Investment Group and the remaining from its previous investors such as Tracker Capital Management and Mudrick Capital Management.

The transaction also made Drew McKnight, Managing Partner at Fortress, one of AURA’s board of directors.

The investment served as a financial runway for AURA to continue their core development work while launching commercial services.

Next Steps

If you decide to send your application and build your investing career at Fortress Investment Group, I would highly recommend that you check out my Growth Equity Interview Guide first before attending interviews.

Growth Equity Interview Guide helps professionals get a good grasp of topics that are typically covered during interviews such as financial modeling, case studies, and more. Check it out and start learning today!