Fired

Very sorry to hear.

1) Take a break for a week. Use it to accept the situation and have some rest.

2) Start drafting your CV and deal sheet. You maybe asked to provide a deal sheet, but you’ll have to refer to it regardless in interviews and know your deals cold. Also craft your story on why you got laid-off (e.g., why, how big the lay-off was, supporting references, your reviews).

3) Reach out to your network, both in IB and PE. Reach out to recruiters and find out which ones recruit for PE or IB, which firms, are they exclusively mandated, etc. And do your own applications. Going to be honest, recruiters are the gate to most PE firms and a lot of IB processes.

4) Cast your net wide. Getting into a top PE shop is already a challenge for top candidates at top groups at top banks. Focus your efforts on a more realistic path, e.g., go back into IB and buy-side recruit later, aim for LMM-MM, see who’s fundraising and closing soon, think about corp dev, etc.

5) When interviews come up, be prepared in every sense. From behavioural and motivational, to deal experience and technicals, and modelling tests (and commercial case studies if applicable).

6) Take care of your personal life. By that I mean, take real good care of your mental and physical health. And try to have a good understanding of your financial position so you can get a picture of how much runway you have and where to cut costs ASAP.