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Immediately after 1st year bonuses is when headhunters would contact the 2nd years. Offers from top shops usually coming in Sept-Oct for a following summer start.
How do the people making the offers know the performance of the people they make offers to?
I've never understood how companies find out the performance of people in a different company in order to make them offers.
I have a buddy who is leaving the Healthcare group at BoA in NY in June to go work for a healthcare PE firm based out of Boston. He got his offer before his end-of-first-year bonus.
Don't really think your banker performance matters when interviewing at the PE firms. I mean obviously you need good references from the bank, but it doesn't need to be from the guy that decided your comp. I think the PE firms are just like the banks; they make their own hiring decisions based on interviews (some firms I know of give modeling/excel/accounting exams as well).
The headhunters will come a knockin in the late summer/early fall to help recruit for start dates the following summer. For the KKRs, Carlyle's, Blackstone's, it's a fairly standardized process from what I have been told. The smaller shops might be more non-traditional since they may only hire based on current hiring needs.
They ask for your bonus number. And by calling your references.
Begin recruiting around early June, the headhunters representing them have contacts within the bank and get a good idea of who the best analysts are. Once bonuses are paid, top bucket analysts start to get serious consideration by the top PE firms. I can't speak for all the funds, but I think most of them are done recruiting by Aug. Couple of my friends had secured offers prior to then.
I just went through the process and here is how it typically works:
1) Headhunters began contacting you around May for initial contact and then call again after bonus numbers are released. 2) You meet personally with all the headhunters (most people are idiots and dont think of this as an interview and act arrogant/retarded/stiff and they get screwed. The headhunter is the gatekeeper to the jobs so make sure you impress them 3) Headhunters start letting you know about jobs and ask if you are interested (based on skill level and what you told them you are looking for) in submitting your resume.
4) Top-tier PE's usually recruit around July/Aug/Sep and middle market follows (Aug/Sep/Oct) 5) You start interviewing at firms that select you and the rest is up to you.
You really help your chances by having really good references at the firm and being a top-tier analyst (Dont like about that one because you WILL get caught)
I ended up taking an offer at a middle market fund (~1.2bn) in SF so I speak from experience.
Fanker, I'd be interested in the intangibles that might have played into your decision (lifestyle, culture, reputation) vs. tangibles (pay, past performance of the fund).
It is a very big decision to pick which firm you are going to so I weighed everything carefully. I think for me the culture and lifestyle was more important (especially after getting killed as an analyst, I wanted some breathing room)
The shop itself is pretty well-respected (I called 4-5 headhunters and asked them what they though of the firm). One big issue for me was that the firm i work with must do a healthy # of deals a year. Whats the point of going to a PE shop and not doing any deals (its actually sometimes better to go to a shop that does lots of deals than a shop with a "marquis" name).
The firm i am working with does about 15 deals a year which is amazing (considering they only have 8-10 associates) with lots of bolt-ons. The fund itself is doing great (they've hit a few homers with 100%+ IRR) and they just raised a 400mm fund.
The people who work there seemed very knowledgable yet relaxed.
The hours seem standard for middle-market PE (9am - 7pm with hardly any weekends). Pay is 85k base, 95k bonus.
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