On cycle from T1 bank regional office
Hey,
I m an SA in a T1 bank (imagine GS/MS/JPM) regional office (imagine Chicago, SF, LA, Menlo, Houston). I know as a fact that our group is very solid. I like the team, the people, and the city and I turned down a few BB NY offers to work here. However, I saw posts about how difficult it can be for regional office bankers to navigate the on-cycle process and how we got fewer looks from MF headhunters. I hope to hear some advice from regional bankers about how to navigate PE recruiting: should I re-recruit to NY? Is it still going to be that bad even for T1 banks? What if I target MF not based in NY (say H&F, TPG)?
I am extremely grateful for an opportunity to work with all the turmoil going on. I will stay as long as there are no significant/insurmountable difficulties ahead. Thank you all in advance for the comments/suggestions/thoughts.
At a T1 bank in a regional, recruit to NY and thank me later.
SF/LA are okay for oncycle if you're in a top group (not just "T1 bank"... top group in that city), you need to get there the second you hear rumors though. Don't know enough about Chicago or Menlo to comment.
Houston does not do oncycle for NY, even at the top groups, and if you want to participate you should lateral to NY for FT or at the one year mark. Also, the whole "T1" bank thing matters way less once you get your group placement. GS Houston is a good group but not going to have the same oncycle opportunities as someone at a top group at Citi NY for example.
Is on-cycle in Houston just not a possibility or is it a self-selection type situation? It seems like even all Texas funds placements would then be one-off opportunities that pop up during A1 year.
You will simply not get any HH outreach for NY oncycle. Every year there's a few very disappointed Houston analysts who were all prepared, and then watch oncycle come and go thinking it would make their way to them, and it doesn't.
You may get some outreach for NY offcycle, primarily infra/energy or smaller niche-ier funds like first/second raises or unique strategies.
Texas funds are basically all offcycle, a few of them go at the same time but it's not comparable to the speed of real oncycle - you have your interviews over a week or more like any other process.
Thanks for the heads up. That’s a really important point and seems like a disadvantage
Doubt Houston is at all relevant for OP, because it's a very different question than what it seems he is asking, but just as someone who worked in Houston banking and now at a PE fund in NYC, this just isn't true. Every energy and infra fund in NYC that does on cycle recruits from Houston at that time. If you want to do anything other than energy, infra (infra being mostly midstream) and maybe energy transition, then yes absolutely you have zero chance with oncycle coming from Houston, but ~80% of my class placed during oncycle and every single person interested has gotten nyc interviews during oncycle. Just don't want Houston bankers to read this and miss out if that's something they're interested in. My phone rang nonstop the hour oncycle kicked off because I was very clear with headhunters on my interest and reasonable (ie. only recruited energy/infra). Also many Texas funds go during oncycle as well…
This is just patently false. I personally know multiple analysts from Houston EB's who placed on-cycle at top MFs this past year
Thank you so much for the info! Sorry for using the name "T1 bank" as a clickbait - there are definitely a lot of great regional groups not in GS/MS/JPM and I pay my full respect to them.
At an EB in one of the cities you mentioned. Was proactive about meeting with headhunters before on-cycle kicked off and had no issue getting looks for top MF / UMM funds. I think you have to have solid story for why you're interested in moving cities, but in the post-COVID world, headhunters are more flexible with virtual recruiting. Ended up placing at a top MF (BX, KKR, CG, APO)
So that we can make this apples to apples, was this for a corporate PE role? Ie Apollo generalist, KKR Healthcare NYC, Carlyle retail media consumer, etc.?
Or something not traditional PE (i.e. Blackstone Strategic Partners / KKR growth / Apollo Credit)
Say what if I don't want to move back to NY? Am I going to have a better chance if I target MF regional groups/MF not based in NY? For example, I saw that Silverlake/TPG/H&F predominately pulls people from NY to SF. Will they be interested in some candidates from the local groups too?
I guess I'm not obsessed with going to NY but more concerned about it being a necessary strategic move to be at least involved in PE recruiting. I am also happy, as of now, to consider some nontraditional choices (I have not yet internalized the idea that traditional corporate PE is better than nontraditional ones maybe due to my lack of knowledge in the industry - would love to hear more reasonings behind it). Will that make things easier for me?
Yep, offer is for buyout corporate PE
Can I pm?
Story is very different if you’re in SF / Menlo vs. Houston / Chicago. You won’t have any trouble recruiting if the former, but Houston / Chicago makes it tough.
Greenhill and Moelis Chicago regularly place UMM and MF NYC…
Which MFs? Can you point me to some of these recent regular exits? I don’t doubt you on UMM, but very few if any have gone on to MF NYC which was OP’s question
:
At a regional EB office going to an NYC MF buyout group. Frankly, you will have a hard time getting on-cycle looks for NYC or generally for funds outside of your regional city. The simple reason is timing, HH’s have no incentive to give you looks outside your current city given how fast on-cycle moves.
The only way around this I’ve seen is if you are extremely proactive and can network with associates/VPs/Principals ahead of on-cycle, they can push your resume to the HH and tell them to give you an interview. A HH will always give you an interview if an investment professional at a fund tells them to, since they ultimately work for that fund. You’ll still need to get to NYC asap. I interviewed on-cycle at a good MM shop in my current city, ended up turning down the offer to keep recruiting, and locked down my MF offer in early Q1 23. While the quality of looks def got better during off-cycle (multiple MF and UMM interviews), networking (coffee chats, breakfasts, etc…) definitely gave me a leg up in ensuring I got interviews at some shops, though it’s definitely not strictly necessary.
I found that the looks I got in the off cycle (which kicked off this past year basically as soon as on-cycle ended) were on par with or sometimes even better than my friends at NYC banks. Coming from a top performing group at my EB likely helped.
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