Platinum Equity Interview Questions

4 total interview insight submissions
Interview Experience (82%)

The Interview Experience is a score from 1 star (very negative) to 5 stars (very positive) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the donut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire dataset.

4
  • Very Negative
  • Negative
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Very Positive
Interview Difficulty (75%)

The Interview Difficulty is a score ranging from very difficult (red) to very easy (green) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. The higher the number, the more difficult the interviews on average. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more insights, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire data set.

2.8
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult

Interviews at Platinum Equity

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Year
Job Title
Group/Division
Location
Experience
Difficulty
Other
Year 2014
Job Title Other
Group/Division Generalist
Location New York
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Difficult
3rd+ Year Analyst
Year 2018
Job Title 3rd+ Year Analyst
Group/Division Investment Banking
Location Los Angeles
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
2nd Year Analyst
Year 2014
Job Title 2nd Year Analyst
Group/Division Generalist
Location Los Angeles
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Average
1st Year Analyst
Year 2014
Job Title 1st Year Analyst
Group/Division Private Equity
Location Los Angeles
Experience
Positive
Difficulty
Very Easy

Interview Questions & Answers - Platinum Equity Examples

Associate Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in New York
Interviewed: July 2014
Date Submitted: Feb 03, 2023
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Recruiter
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Presentation
Interview
Initial phone screen with typical interview questions (walk through resume, talk through responsibilities in banking, deal teams, talk through a deal on my resume). Followed up by a 60 minute excel modelling exercise. Followed by a number of in-person interviews with the entire team and one additional in-person case study.
Interview Questions
Nothing too unexpected. Pretty typical questions. I was asked how debt discounts work on the balance sheet.
Sample Answer

Private Equity associate Interview - Investment Banking

Anonymous interview candidate in Los Angeles
Interviewed: September 2018
Date Submitted: Feb 09, 2019
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Recruiter
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Other
Interview
I received the interview through a headhunter. The first round was with two associates, both over the phone. The second round was a case study. The send me a company and had to build an LBO on a company and answer 6 questions within three hours. No template, have to build one from scratch.
Interview Questions
The first round was a mix of both technical and behavioral questions over the phone. Technical questions consisted of can you still make money on a company that has a zero growth rate, how would you boost returns in an LBO, what are the different types of ways you can lever up a company, how would you chose a multiple to invest in a company, and walk me through how you would model EBITDA margin for a company if there were no projections and you were on the job. The rest of the questions were purely behavioral. They asked me if I could name 2 portfolio companies which I did and didnt ask any follow-up questions. Probably to see if i had done my homework.
Sample Answer

Private equity associate Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in Los Angeles
Interviewed: October 2014
Date Submitted: Oct 13, 2018
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Recruiter
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
Skills Test
Interview
I got the interview through a headhunter. The first round was with an associate and the second round they made me do a case study.

Associate asked about my background, my deals, then fired off a few technicals including would you invest in a company with negative sales growth, drivers in LBO, and types of debt you could use to find a deal. Case study was straight forward, read a 10m and do an LBO. Had four hours.
Interview Questions
Hardest question I got asked was to look at three different companies and decide which would trade at the highest multiple. Other question that was unexpected was tell me on your resume a deal that you think is a good deal. Then once he finished, the interviewer said not tell me why we should never invest in this company. Took me a little bit of surprise after speaking for 10 minutes about strengths of the business. Some other questions to be familiar with are what are your weaknesses and what is something your manager said you should improve on.
Sample Answer

Business Development Analyst Interview - Private Equity

Anonymous interview candidate in Los Angeles
Interviewed: January 2014
Date Submitted: Nov 15, 2014
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Applied via their website. You click "Contact", then "E-mail HR". The VP of HR over there contacted me regarding the Business Development Analyst position. She had to reschedule our phone call 2x but we were able to talk on the 3rd attempt. It was a basic screening process - what do you do, why looking to leave, what are you looking for, and gave me basic description of position. It was a fairly new position and they were looking at other candidates as well so she said they would get back in touch with me. I followed up with her a few days later to confirm my interest and she set up 3 interviews - each back to back to back (about 30 minutes/interview). I don't want to list out names but the 2nd interviewer I had was unpleasant - the rest were fine. After my interview, the group apparently wanted me to meet with a 4th team member who was out of the office when I came in for the interview. When asked about the culture, it was a "eat what you kill" culture. Very incentivized. It was a new role so the interviewers were just trying to see "whose on the market". Platinum Equity sources their own deals and due to the market recovery, they wanted to add to their BD division. No real tough questions, 99% of it was behavioral. Make sure you know why you want to work at Platinum Equity
Interview Questions
What do you know about our firm?

PE firm founded by Tom Gores (brother of Alec Gores who runs the Gores Group). Platinum Equity's tagline is: M&AO, which stands for Mergers, Acquisitions & Operations. They like having assets in-house. Business development sources their deals internally. They have operators/industry experts in a wide variety of sectors. My favorite portfolio company of theirs is Palace Sports & Entertainment (contains Detroit Pistons and other assets). They're a multi-billion $ PE firm that closed a $3.75mm fund back in September 2013.
Sample Answer