OMAHA, Neb. — The job applications from investment managers who want to work with legendary investor Warren Buffett have started to pile up around Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s office in the past week.

Buffett outlined his plan to hire one or more young investment managers in his annual letter to shareholders released March 1. Berkshire plans to make one of the managers of its more than 60 different companies CEO when Buffett is gone, and one of the investment managers will become Berkshire’s chief investment officer.

Buffett, 76, said in his letter that Berkshire’s board agreed in October to seek outside candidates for the chief investment officer job because the best internal candidates are too close to Buffett’s age.

Buffett joked that the job applicants shouldn’t be intimidated by Berkshire’s $61.5 billion investment portfolio or the $38.3 billion cash the Omaha-based company held at the end of 2006.

“I’ve always said my job is so easy a caveman could do it,” Buffett said, echoing the slogan from recent ads for one of Berkshire’s insurance companies, Geico.

But in his shareholder letter, Buffett outlined some more rigorous criteria for the job.

Buffett said he’s looking for someone who is emotionally stable, can avoid serious risks, think independently and read human behavior.

When it comes to Berkshire’s next chief executive, Buffett has said the company board knows “who should take over if I should die tonight” and said the company has three outstanding internal candidates. Each of those candidates is significantly younger than Buffett.

And when the subject of succession came up in his letter, Buffett tried to reassure shareholders that he is in excellent health: “It’s amazing what Cherry Coke and hamburgers will do for a fellow.”

Buffett started handling investments in 1956 when four relatives and three close friends trusted him with $105,000. At the end of 2006, Buffett’s company had total assets of $248.4 billion, and it owned more than 60 companies including insurance, clothing, furniture, natural gas, jewelry and candy companies, restaurants, and corporate jet firms. Berkshire also has major investments in such companies as Coca-Cola Co., Anheuser-Busch Cos. and Wells Fargo & Co.

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