Canadian Junior Bankers - Where are you going?

Going to jump in and provide a differing perspective as I went through Canadian buyside recruiting in the past (landed at a pension so may be biased) and a lot of the information in this thread strikes me as incomplete. I personally found pensions to be among the most appealing roles because of the institutional environment / resources (instead of having culture and resource allocation be dominated by a small number of founders), relatively high pay (many of the MM PE firms here paid extremely poorly when I was going through this process), and ability to stay on longer than 2 years. I am sure there are some exceptions to my generalizations about the MM PE firms, but this is what I found from a sample of ~5 interview processes. Nothing I am writing below applies to the "Canadian MFs" (Onex, Altas, Brookfield).

1) Number of Canadian MM PE Firms: there are quite a few more than mentioned in this thread - some others that come to mind are Northleaf, Fengate, Forum, DW Healthcare, Georgian, Sagard, iNovia, and I'm sure there are more. But the big challenge with these firms is that many have two year programs and no intention of ever promoting associates to VP. In this case, getting carry doesn't even come into the equation, as the firm is not growing and economics are just accruing to the top. There are exceptions, but my impression is that it is a toss up at best. Regardless, there are actually quite a few seats available and most people in my analyst class who were decent at their job placed in a buyside role (provided they wanted it). 

2)  Culture / Resources: it is worth keeping in mind that these MM/LMM firms are basically just small, founder-run businesses. Not much else to say, but just remember that your enjoyment will be determined entirely by how well you get along with these founders. More institutional (i.e. larger - Northleaf, Fengate, pensions) firms will have more consistency in culture and professionalism.

3) Pension Investment Style: know that whether or not pensions just "piggy back" GP diligence varies dramatically by fund. For example, I understand CPPIB leans on GPs for sourcing, but almost all diligence is done in-house for the Direct PE team. I believe OMERS and Teachers both source and execute deals independently and effectively function as GPs. All three of those firms have "Portfolio Operations" teams that support portcos, similar to how the large US GPs work. Newer pensions (HOOPP, IMCO) may lean more heavily on GPs than the larger pensions and I believe they lump funds investing and direct investing into the same team.

4) Compensation: For associate level roles, I found pensions to pay much more on average than MM/LMM PE firms. At the time I was recruiting, pensions were offering $180-240k for a first year associate compared to $140-200k for MM/LMM firms. This all is now outdated because of recent pay raises across the street so figures should be much higher for pension - not sure if the MM firms matched. Although you will not get carry at pensions (OMERS used to offer it and is now getting sued by a former MD for $65m), the killer in Canada is that the lack of upwards mobility across almost all firms means there is limited opportunity to get it at GPs as well!  So for any analyst evaluating options, consider the track record of internal advancement for each firm you look at. A $500k+ cash salary at a pension is not a bad option in the long term if you actually like investing. If you want to maximize earnings though, it is likely best to just stay in banking (or better - go to the US).