Anybody else find themselves incredibly bored by their PE job? I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
Actually interested in what people currently working in PE think of their gig. Because, honestly, I just feel like I'm doing homework for a living and tweaking models 1,000x over isn't stimulating, it's boring and is tiring me out.
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There's a thread on this already: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/anyone-else-find-their-pe-job-bor…
Most jobs become boring after some time. However, I've discovered that one of the few things that don't get old is getting a blowjob.
Ha, reading the super pro-PE posts in that thread almost turned my stomach. Dudes talking about downloading and reading through the entire data room and doing due diligence like it's having sex.
Perhaps this job is just truly meant for some people that love working on deals / miss doing homework in college. To others, like myself, all of that stuff is just boring. And it's a lot more impressive sounding on paper than it is in practice.
I work in IBD where we sell a few companies to PE shops and whatnot, and I can definitely see that PE is not as glamorous as people make it out to be. Almost every 2nd year IBD analyst I know really really really wants to get into PE, but I'm not sure if they realize that it's really much of the same. In our PE-related deals I've noticed how DEEP the PE guys really get into analyzing a company once they gain exclusivity, and it's pretty mind-boggling.
I'll agree to CompBanker, though, that I think it all depends on attitude. We're not all born to be rock stars or professional athletes, and to find one's calling is actually a pretty hard proposition. Sometimes we need to learn to love what we do. Though I also see that artificially glamorizing certain careers is a bid misleading as well. I'd say unless you're at the level of Gordon Gekko, any finance is gonna be boring.
go to a debt fund...
earning money isn't boring to me... but I do agree with you that the actual day to day can be somewhat monotone
Welcome back dude
thanks
I imagine that the monotony can be more bearable at a mega fund due to the substantial pay package. That said, I work in the middle market and do sometimes wonder if the pay justifies what I'm doing. I'd likely take a pay cut to do something more enjoyable.
Due diligence, lender presentations, internal memos (which are absurdly duplicative and unnecessary, especially in a smaller shop like my own), and endless changes to models (which are boring and get really tedious at times) just isn't all that great. Though, props to anyone who truly enjoys this. I will say, though, that I got a laugh reading that CompBanker thinks that, other than being a pro athlete, it doesn't get much better than a gig in PE.
As stated earlier, it depends on the shop and how much latitude is given to associates. If you're at a place with a very strict hierarchy, you may only work on models / memos (definitely like banking) and that would seriously suck. I hated banking specifically for the reason that the last thing I wanted to do was turn idiotic comments at 3am in the morning.
Internal memos are definitely the bane of my existence. It feels like writing a long research paper. Models are actually more bearable and thankfully, most of the people I work with (VPs/senior guys) have constructive comments as to how to make it more functional, etc.
And as others have mentioned, getting a nice bonus / salary out of it isn't so bad either. I'm still not convinced that other corporate-y jobs outside of the financial world are any more interesting / challenging. I honestly have no clue but I guess that's what b-school is for? If that's the case, why not stay in finance and just keep getting paid?
My impression is that finance at a corporation is just as boring as IB/PE when it comes to the technical nature of the job, repetitiveness, etc. It's just plugging numbers in Excel and paperwork - at a corporation you do that 40-50 hours, while at a fund or bank you do it for 70-90 hours. The marketing/brand management people I have met seem to be much happier with their jobs as compared with people from finance or consulting. It seems that these jobs provide much more variety and space for creativity than your average finance job, which at the lower levels is boring everywhere. If you make it to an MD, it's different, but very few people are cut out for it.
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