I have a number of friends on the buyside in PE, Direct Lending, Liquid Credit and Equity Hedge Funds. I’ve found PE and Direct Lending to be much worse work/life balance due to transactional nature of the work, but better compensated ($$$) and with a long term view (1-5 years)... while liquid investments tend to be more market hours, lesser compensated and with a short term view (daily and quarterly).
Does anyone else have a view on this? With the COVID shock, a number of funds are raising distressed and special situations funds for “capital solutions” (middle market distressed direct lending) and “secondary dislocation” (loans and bonds in levfin market). Where does this fall in the spectrum of work/life balance and compensation?
not to give a trite answer but the generalities tend to stick to fund size, but the only generality that is true is that it depends on the firm. variance tends to be high in my opinion for both, unless they have a standardized pipeline or use HH, etc. then they will usually have enough money to have good standardized comp. otherwise it’s highly firm dependent down to structure
The hours component of work/life balance will depend on a ton of different variables: firm / team / product focus / even location.
Honestly, it is is pretty hard to make the work/life balance component without factoring in the stress/variability that comes from being in a seat that accrues P+L that you will see on a daily basis. When you're performing well, it will feel great and the hours fly by. When you're performing poorly, time ticks by very slowly. This is obviously the case when you are solely responsible for P+L, but the feeling is there when you are part of a team/pod as well. That type of stress also doesn't end when the day is over / weekend arrives, it lingers and some handle it better than others.
From a L/S equity perspective, there is certainly more predictability (vs. banking) as to when your work/life balance will be better/worse. Earnings periods are when you will be working the longest hours, but you know exactly when this period starts/ends. Since you aren't in a client-facing seat, there are far fewer random firedrills that drastically change your hours.
One other thing that has been noted on countless other threads is that even when you aren't in the office working, you are still always "working" by thinking about your ideas/portfolio, following news on your companies, reading transcripts/filings at home, etc.
This exactly. If you're in HF the "hours" in the office might seem relatively low compared to IB but ideally you are going to be passionate about what you do, which leads to doing research on your own at home.
That being said don't make your job your entire life. Go on ski trip, start dating, etc. My first year I was essentially "working" at the office and at home which led to burnout. Started to reevaluate and made more time in my life for better things during my 2nd year and it made the job feel less stressful.
Work at small single manager shop, hours are 50 hours a week, 60-70 during earnings season... imo some single managers reflect best reward per hour spent, but limited upward mobility
Would like to hear which funds you're referring to.
Something I'd keep in mind about HF (or any markets oriented work really) vs. PE or private credit is that there's more to work/life balance than just hours worked and predictability. The markets moving on a daily basis can be really stressful and make it really hard to every truly unplug or recharge. Some people thrive on this but personally it really kept me on edge. I work more hours in PE than I did at my old HF and I've had random BS fire drills but I find myself less stressed overall.
Out of curiosity did you move from PE to a HF and then back? Or did you somehow move from a HF to PE without prior experience?
Bump
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