London PE Recruiting - Bias against Americans?
CO
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on 7/31/12 at 12:42pm
I'm looking to recruit with a few PE firms next year, some of which will most likely be in London. I was wondering if you guys knew if there were any bias against Americans when recruiting for European PE firms... I know that this may sound like a stupid question, but it is a question that I always had at the back of my mind.






Not really, especially not
Not really, especially not for any of the US funds (of which there are many) where there are tons of US guys both transferred from the US and hired into London.
There are two areas it'll hurt you:
1) Lots of PE funds require an extra language. Particularly smaller shops where they need the Associate to be able to run French/German/Nordic deals and haven't a large enough team to absorb English only speakers. English guys also have this problem
2) Some London PE funds are quite "English" e.g. Charterhouse, Cinven and might prefer English guys culturally though they'd never say that explicitly.
^ exactly. There are so many
^ exactly. There are so many americans in finance globally that I don't think it will matter generally. Although some places will care more than others!