Been trying to prepare for the exit to the buyside. Given PE recruiting is substantially more competitive than IB, I've been reading a bit that you need to be able to impress with areas outside of finance as well to stand out / be competitive.
My problem is that working 100 hour weeks has driven me to the point where I am really not familiar with anything that's going on in the outside world, and i really have no time to catch up / be interesting. I am working 7 days a week and the social skills and hobbies I use to have are now pretty much gone. I am a beast at finance, companies, growth expansion, etc., but really hard to be knowledgeable/current in anything else.
So kind of a pathetic question, but what do other analysts do to stay interesting when consistently working 100+ hour weeks?
What news source do you read outside of finance that helps you have conversations with people not in finance? How are you able to fit in any other hobby (mine used to be golf and traveling but those are impossible with my work schedule). Maybe podcasts, having conversation with staffer to carve out an hour a week to do something else, etc.
I just need to appear like I'm not 100% an IB machine in front of recruiters so they have confidence putting me in front of a client for an interview.
Any suggestions are helpful.
I wouldn't worry about this too much. You'll be competing for jobs with people who are in the exact same situation and work the same hours you do.
"I've been reading a bit that you need to be able to impress with areas outside of finance as well to stand out / be competitive."
No. No, you don't.
Impress them with your deal experience and do your best to come across as someone pleasant to be around. Can't ask for much else.
Saying things like these and acting proud of working 100+ hour weeks will make recruiters cringe. The former just makes you sound like an idiot. The latter is not something to be proud of and is either a lie or means that you are very slow because no group makes you do 100+ hour weeks consistently.
I agree with the meat of your points, but there are definitely groups where 100 hour weeks persist for a number of months, usually due to inopportune departures or just a glut of projects.
When they say that kind of stuff they mean they want someone they like. You don't actually need hobbies or anything to talk about, just be likable. Don't be a socially awkward finance geek.
the fact you think you are a finance beast is hilarious. your 5% growth assumption you make in your models are baseless and laughable. if you are referring to raw modeling skills, well, if you make it to buyside, you will quickly find out what you learned in banking is just the foundation.
that said, soft skills are extremely important in PE. when you travel to mgmt presentations, you are expected to participate. if you sound like a complete idiot or just an asshole, you won't win the deal unless you pay an absurd premium. i think you get the picture
Interviews are all about the story, you're the product, so be likeable.
Carve out one hour per week? You can't currently find one hour, and you need to ask your staffer to block time off for you? Spend some time and read news/blogs/twitter/etc. Not very difficult to find pockets of free time throughout the day.
This. Someone working in IB should be more than capable of managing their time, especially for something pertaining to future career. You're not completing a graduate thesis or some shit. You literally can't find ANY time to do something other than finance? In the middle of July/summer? Come on man.
Also a great idea.
All solid answers. I agree with a lot of what's been said and its actually good to hear that people understand. It was a lot easier when I had a social life outside work.
Maybe what I was reading was playing up the competitiveness of the recruiting process. The link is below:
http://www.streetofwalls.com/finance-training-courses/private-equity-tr…
I haven't checked, but if they're trying to sell a prep package then it makes sense.
And unfortunately we have been working those kind of hours. We do get about 60% of our Saturday's off, but it's usually spent sleeping, gym, and trying to maintain some level of relationships you had before banking (calling home, meeting up with a friend for a beer, etc). Sunday's are brutal though.
Someone mentioned reading up on social media. Definitely something I need to do more often for sure and will try to integrate.
Podcasts man, you can grind them out while working and literally can be about anything you want(finance, sports, humor) Its a good way to stay current and pass the time at work.
Podcasts are awesome idea
On time management, I believe I could manage my own time well if I had any flexibility with it. The culture here has been if there's any work at all it needs to be done ASAP, nothing can be TBU'd until the next day ever, even if the pitch is in 5 days. So you get comments late and have to turn them that night, freeing up your time for the next day, so you can work on a new project and do it again. I keep a project tracker and at mid year I've worked on 43 pitches (most include some pro forma analysis / basic merger modeling with the universe of strategic ideas, etc) and 4 live deals (closed only one).
Not sure if this is consistent with other banks but definitely feel like if I was managing my own time I could manage it better.
Starting my first podcast today for sure though
90% of your advice is going to come down to "don't act like a dickhole".
During Army stints when my workload was that bad, the thing that kept my sanity and kept me informed was that I refused to give up listening to news radio. Bandwidth is now large enough that most places will let you stream at work (Hell, even the military lets you now). Failing that there's any number of radios that are compact in size. Hell, even a lot of MP3 players and cell phones will pick up an FM signal these days.
You need to be somewhat likeable and not simply a finance drone/tool. It'll be about your ability to shoot the shit and act like a human rather than a spreadsheet. I've always worked in smaller PE shops so it may be different, and most likely is, at the MF's and other large firms, but I've always hired people at the associate level knowing that we are a small team and the senior guys will be interacting with you. A lot. The airport test sounds cliche but I've actually been stuck in airports with associates for hours on end because of delays or we had no where else to go after a meeting ended and the flight was a few hours out. Or we're in a different city and grabbing a drink and a bite at the hotel bar. You're not going to be my best friend but it helps if we can talk about something other than a deal or DCF's. We also hire with the hope that you'll be with the firm for the long term and advance up to a senior level. You'll get interaction with portfolio companies, bankers, lawyers, debt guys, etc. so you need to be someone who can be personable. And if you make it to a senior level you'll have to interact with LP's.
Keeping up with current events overall is a good idea because you'll be making investment decisions at some point and knowing what's going on in the world will affect your investments. No one's going to expect you know all of the details on the Iran deal, for example, but going into PE means more than just being stuck in excel and powerpoint all day (although you'll be doing your fair share of that and combing through due diligence docs).
Read a book. Make time.
Even if you are working long hours, you can find time to catch up with current events, whether that is through podcasts or just listening to the news. Get those satellite radio subscriptions and listen to any radio station to keep up with the non-finance world.
You basically need to be a likable guy. As one guy mentioned earlier, don't come off as a finance nerd.
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