Blackstone PE vs Apollo PE vs Silverlake PE

Get an offer first.

I'm pretty sure apollo doesn't have an analyst program. Nice try though.

You should rank them in terms of which one gave you an offer oh wait....

I'd rank all three as hard as fuck for anyone, let alone an undergrad.

So...how'd you get an interview with TPG?

The only way you can in college (or I think the only way you can)... my dad asked a very senior MD if it was okay if I interviewed and then that guy said yes, as a favor to my dad. I went into it knowing I wasn't going to get a job though... but I figured it was worth going for practice, if nothing else... I was surprised I did well enough on the phonecall to get a live interview - that seemed like a victory at the time.

The MD at TPG had worked with my dad many years ago so they had a good relationship.

Nice...how did the interview go? Were they not planning on taking an analyst and interviewed your because of the connection, or was there a chance you could have gotten it?

I really don't know if I ever had a chance, but I'm guessing i had a TINY chance - like just incase I somehow blew them away... when they called me on the phone it a more senior-ish person, like a VP i believe, who spoke to me for a while about my interests, why I was interested in PE, etc... then he asked me to do a few long, broad case-study type questions... stuff about, for example, what types of follow-on acquisitions I might make after purchasing an industrial/manufacturing conglomerate in the farm equipment industry... etc. I was a humanities major in UG, but I knew a lot more about business / strategy / operations than he was expecting (my dad ran/owned/sold manufacturing companies... and i had been drilled on business stuff since birth - literally). I guess I surprised him a bit and then I got invited to NYC for interviews. I got screwed once the technical finance questions started coming (about valuation, modeling etc.)... I knew absolutely zero about all that at the time.

int. pymp;

would you care to re-create an example of how the valuation modelling questions are asked? I suppose I am looking to get an idea of what kind of information needs to be a reflect and to what depth knowledge should be expected? I have applied to a few roles where the questions were simple: i.e. how do you calculate wacc, what's in a pitch book, etc etc. that would be hugely appreciated..

I know a junior in W who dropped for Apollo's summer analyst program on their on campus recruiting website... he's an undergrad, so I guess they do recruit undergrads?

He also mentioned that a senior had a full-time for Apollo PE from W.

^Yes, Apollo does recruit undergrads. At least for Wharton they do

The questions they asked me were RELATIVELY simple as far as finance tech questions go... but at the time I didn't really know how to answer them. The reality was that I knew a lot about business, so I felt cocky, and despite the fact that I knew nothing about finance I thought I could use my "business acumen" to figure anything out.

They asked me some finance question that required knowledge of business/economics and I got those correct.... stuff like "why might you choose to hedge your exposure to raw materials more in X___X manufacturing company than you would at Y____Y company... even though they are both exposed to price fluxuations? How else might this company hedge against other risks, knowing what you do about it's operations, etc..."

Sadly enough, the things they asked me that I didn't know were simple questions about calculating WACC, what happens to the accounting statements in X scenario, etc.... I just figured they wanted to know that I was smart, but didn't care I hadn't taken accounting, etc.... I kind of learned my lesson from the TPG interview, and studied a bit for Blackstone, but I still got dinged because of tech questions there too - had I only known how big an opportunity that was at the time I'd have studied a lot more. Anyways - I was young and reckless : P

thanks for all the SB's on this thread gentleman... I got KILLED with 30+ monkey shits on another one earlier...