What are the main factors in PE recruiting ?

bump!!

bumping for reach

you forgot the most important part- your banking group

Hey- to be honest- I know that the banking group/bank matters a ton but just curious about the other factors^

Only with a grain of salt since I’m a random person on the internet:

On-Cycle PE recruiting is fairly similiar to target school on campus recruiting from what I know about both of them. 
 

for those who did not go to target schools Or didn’t do ocr,  a good amount is seemingly random or based on small stuff since it’s just a cookie cutter process. Each decision is made with minimal info and fairly quickly since it’s basically only a 2 year commitment or so for both sides and the job at that level is fairly boilerplate in terms of once you know the skills it’s mainly processing and the like in my humble opinion. You learn a lot but the difference between the very best PE associate and the very worst PE associate (assuming they both went to similiar schools / banks) isn’t that big and doesn’t really move the needle for a PE firm. As long as a person can show they check the box and can do the work they generally find a good spot. All the big on cycle names are good spots. Only young kids who only ever read barbarians or saw the wsj headlines for the last few years think it’s like apollo or bust or whatever or whichever firm/sector is currently hot. Careers are long and cycles change (only recently everyone seemed to want to do tech…)

that being said given that it’s not a big commitment for firms / the kids too in a larger sense it’s more about just minimizing errors and playing it safe. If you have a kid who has demonstrated he does a good job with his work whether jt be school work (did good in class, good grades, went to the best schools they could, did well, etc) or work (does well in the bank via references / did good prep to get into a good bank/group), then that’s basically enough for these employers to say ok, chances are he/she/they will be able to more or less do the job and help. 
 

beyond that it’s like a game of musical chairs. But with like enough chairs for most people just different color chairs or whatever

good luck. Best wishes 👍🏼🙏🏼😃 

Fairly on point for a random person on the internet :))

I’m at a MF and from my perspective having now gone through on-cycle on the other side, the biggest factor is the same as it is for all interviews: can you speak eloquently and develop rapport with people quickly to make them want to work with you and have confidence you’ll be effective in the role? At the end of the day, especially since the process is so hectic, that’s what it comes down to. With your stats, as long as you’re in a decent banking group, you’ll get plenty of looks. The challenge is that there are few hundred other people that also meet the bar to get first-rounds at multiple firms. At that point, no one’s (at least we’re not) splitting hairs based on 0.2 GPA difference or SAT scores. It’s about how you convey your competence (backed up by performance on model test and technicals) and if we like you. Good luck!