Struggling with Experience

First year analyst here and I want to voice my struggle to see if anyone else has been dealing with this. My aim is to recruit for private equity but honestly I’ve gotten little to no exposure. I’ve yet to have opened or set up a VDR or have been on a truly live deal pulling those crazy hours (which while nice for the lifestyle, completely stumps my learning, I get the joke of “haha tell me where you work so I can apply!” but it’s pretty detrimental to your learning if you’re just super relaxed and you don’t really have any live deal experience).

I know I want to do private equity but I would literally have nothing to talk about in interviews, I could take what I’ve been on so far and lie and exaggerate but I’d be scrapping super hard. The worst part is that I’ve actually gotten pretty far in interviews before and got scared because if I DID get the job I have no idea how I’d do because I literally have no tangible experience. I have not modeled, I have not done any thorough due diligence, most I’ve done is send calendar invite, prepare market pages, build case studies on companies or deals and learn email etiquette. It’s not even that I haven’t closed a deal, but that I haven’t even BEEN on a deal and I’m about to be a year in. I also can’t really leave because I wouldn’t exactly be competitive (no experience) and this is definitely not the environment to roll the dice like that, at the end of the day I’m not super stressed out or anything and I’m chilling, but I’m worried that the super relaxed standard this position has set for me has fucked up my baseline of what banking is like and now I’m too soft. I don’t know, anyone else in this position?

For what it counts for, I know how to do the modelling and the case studies and can do all that stuff. But all my exposure / knowledge is theoretical, which makes this frustrating because I also feel like I'm being underused.

5 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Magnam molestiae et qui deleniti harum ut qui. Velit repellendus voluptas magni. Qui voluptatem reiciendis optio numquam officia. Atque est quam omnis corrupti nostrum ipsam praesentium. Voluptas quod aliquid mollitia saepe accusamus. Et nulla illo temporibus est iste vel.

Iusto suscipit suscipit incidunt cumque ut quibusdam sapiente. Vitae eum enim fugit laudantium ut ratione. Unde porro maxime ducimus saepe voluptas maiores quibusdam.

Asperiores et ducimus tenetur doloribus. Occaecati officiis sunt eveniet velit ab non.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan No 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (15) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (79) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”