Best Buyside Summer Analyst Programs
I am really interested in investing and would ideally like to go to a buyside program as early as possible so I can get better at pattern recognition, critical thinking, and all the many other things that separate investors from bankers. So, I have been trying to compile a full list of the best buyside programs for junior summer and this is what I have so far. Would really appreciate any additions or insight into programs people have (like I have heard that SL is killing their SA program but there's no true confirmation).
LO: Fidelity, Ruane, Cap Group, Dodge & Cox, T. Rowe, PIMCO, BlackRock
MM HF: Point72, Citadel, DE Shaw, Balyasny
SM HF: Maverick, Matrix, Silver Point
Special Sits: Ares, Sixth Street, BX, Bain
MF PE: BX, KKR, Bain, Vista
UMM PE: Ares, FP, GTCR, Audax
GE: Insight, GA, Summit, Lead Edge
VC: Bessemer, Battery
Note: Firms listed in-terms of reputation/prestige
Edits: Added Maverick, Removed SL (killing program), Moved Insight to GE, Cut JMI & Spectrum (not considered top/prestigious), Added GTCR, Added Lead Edge
Hey Prospect in PE - LBOs, I'm the WSO Monkey Bot...do any of these help:
More suggestions...
You're welcome.
.
I thought Insight is more GE. They have multiple funds though so they probably do both? In terms of GE, I’d put them up next to GA. They’re one of the few A2A analyst programs in growth.
GTCR and Roark for UMM PE
Apax for megafund PE.
I thought they only took analysts, not summer analysts in the US.
BX and KKR are the top generalist PE programs. SL is similarly elite but didn’t hire analysts for class of 2024. Bain Cap, Vista, and Ares are the other top programs with institutional resources put behind the analyst program. Differences between these six firms come down more to culture, analyst program mechanics, and investing focus rather than caliber. There are so few analyst seats that getting one is all that matters. You will have access to roughly the same opportunities if you decide to leave after An/Assc. Worth pointing out that the non-PE groups at these places are in most cases different entirely — not to say better or worse, just different.
Do you mind elaborating on these differences? Currently in corp pe but am particularly interested in transitioning to real estate arms at KKR / BX.
The velocity, complexity, and diversity of deals at Blackstone PE is why analysts place so well when they leave. Regarding other top programs, KKR is verticalized (TMT, Industrials, etc), Bain Cap is rotational (6 months in Tech, Consumer, Industrials, and HC), and Vista is fully software-focused. For practical purposes, I would focus on getting an offer from one of these programs -- there are probably ~25 jobs at these five firms for each graduating class so any differences in perceived prestige are marginal. If, however, one were lucky enough to be choosing between these programs, I would focus more on sector-focus (Vista is ideal for people interested in tech) and culture (have high opinion of Bain Capital in this regard). Hope that helps.
I would actually go out and say that BX and Bain are the top generalist PE programs. Your experience at KKR really varies depending on which group you target - the strongest ones (from what I've heard) are NY Industrials and TMT. If you are looking at MP TMT then you are going to be much better served by just going to Vista, if you can field offers from both.
Add Ares for PE
a few other GE: Lead Edge, SGE, Volition
VC: Accel
Accel's program is very ad hoc - they didn't hire anyone for 2024 summer this year.
Do these guys actually invest/trade based on pattern recognition? Isn't technical analysis astrology for men? I got into it in my first semester in college cause I thought that technical analysis sounds like something that should work cause it has the word "technical" in it, and people usually use word "technical" to describe something tangible that actually works. But I realized by my junior year that I was a naive child and there's close to nothing behind technical analysis, and it's always easy to draw patterns on historical candles but in real time one pattern becomes another one and then disappears.
And I'm wondering how you plan to get better at critical thinking hah.
Bruh pattern recognition doesn't mean looking at stock chart patterns and seeing if it looks like a dildo when you squint but rather looking for indicators of previous successful (or unsuccessful) investments and using that to inform your final investment decision. In VC, this might mean that you may avoid a new last-mile delivery startup because you know the unit economics are absolute dog water unless you reach a tremendous scale (this is a really simple example, but this can extrapolated to literally every part of a business from it's unit economics to sales efficiency to growth, etc. etc.). For PE, it might mean that you may use a certain combo of sources for debt because the growth from the lack of certain covenants was able to make up for it being more expensive. I could come up with probably a thousand different examples for each industry OP listed above lmao. So, long story short, to answer your really stupid question - yes, absolutely these guys 100 percent use pattern recognition when investing.
Got it. I'd call it business knowledge rather than pattern recognition, but got the idea now.
PIMCO recently started analyst programs for investing roles in trading, REPE, private distressed credit, and private special situations. Heard comp is street and hours are not bad.
PIMCO, CapGroup blow the rest of the LO group out of the water. PIMCO has institutional capital in equities, commodities, private credit, etc funds but most of the firm is geared towards bonds. So they're not really like a CapGroup or TRowe. You also probably won't easily get to manage real funds coming in straight from UG at a big AM LO equities shop.
Fidelity, Blackrock, State Street, Vanguard are well respected and will teach you a lot, but bureaucratic unless you're in some carveout part of the firm that does direct investing.
Nothing separates investors as a category from bankers. There aren't magic tricks that HF and PE guys know that bankers don't. The real differentiator as every kid tries to get into finance/consulting is an actual genuine passion for markets. "Pattern recognition" is literally just created by reading more. Read more.
Working for a buy side shop won't make you a better critical thinker. Studying philosophy or math will. Try to find a firm who you admire, not a firm that everyone else admires.
Maybe you really like Howard Marks and credit and you would just love to work for Oaktree. Their rep for the WSO UG/MBA monkeys isn't where Blackstone is but I certainly won't see Oaktree closing any doors for you. If you really want to become a great investor, stop thinking about where you want to work in terms of prestige. Nobody cares about that kind of thing once you actually have a job. People care about what is actually coming out of your mouth. Why do you have the views that you do? Why do you believe in certain secular trends? What's your position on RRP drawdowns or JPY/USD? What do you know about Japanese regulatory structures related to spinouts? These are the questions and conversations that I've actually had at buy side shops.
The WSO community never talks about TCI, barely mentions Adage and has a fetish for tiger cubs and MM pod shops. Go talk to some LPs. Look at where institutional allocators are actually positioning themselves. Harvard, Stanford, Ford Foundation, etc. are probably indexing to some of the best places.
Not sure what the rest of WSO thinks, but there's nothing quite like starting in credit.
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