48 hours seemingly to lock-in for on-cycle
I am beginning my on-cycle prep now for the next 48 hours in case things kick-off 1/5 (I really hope things don't kick off until 1/9 or 1/12). Am I screwed? My modeling / technicals are fine just need some work but deal prep and behaviorals need extensive prep
Just prep your deal walkthrough and tell me about yourself. Maybe read up long-form news on companies / economy (seekingalpha is good for this). The 4 things you need to show are: thinking like an investor (news), interest in PE / fund (news + thinking through), deal knowledge (should be vast majority of time at this stage - 100% will be asked), and some quantative knowledge (just get to PF level 3 from scratch / basic LBO with B/S). The modelling there will probably take you out of the running for the Apollo's of the world; but you'd be shocked at how many on-cycle tests are PF level 3 or easier from both my experience and others.
Thank you!!
Can you elaborate on "read up long-form news on companies / economy" and the first thing to know? I know my industry well and can speak to trends, but by news do you mean knowing interest rates/inflation, geopolitics, etc?
To respond to OP, I think everyone hopes it kicks off closer to 1/8 or 1/9 so it's closer to the weekend and stepping out for interviews might be more accepted. But maybe they aim for early in the week since there might still be a holiday lull
I'm with you hc8765, everyone seems to be bracing for it to be early next week but I do think (and hope) that there is a chance it won't start until end of next week or beginning of week 2 given people may be on holiday etc.
Read WSJ and Seeking Alpha, but do it with intent. Don’t try to memorize facts, focus on what actually drives value for a company and how that differs from peers. It’s about developing investor intuition and separating what matters from what’s just noise. A good way to do this is to read multiple takes on the same company (obviously do companies that are well known and have things written about them) and see where people agree vs. disagree, that’s usually where the real debate is. For example, for Industrial businesses: try to form a view on the effect of tarrifs on margin compression and ability to pass pricing power. The goal is to go deep on a company so you learn how to think like an investor for these interviews. Ideally, you’d spend a week + doing this properly for more than just one niche, but given timing would just do one company solely.
agree with comment above but also need to prepare firm specific things if you’re interviewing at niche strategies. For TB read up on SaaS. For stonepoint understand fig etc. This is a lot of time
If someone is doing on-cycle prep starting now they probably shouldn't go for SaaS only firms or FIG only ones unless they are in those sectors. Just not an efficient usage of time relatively. The number 1 thing is being able to do PF Level 3 from scratch generally correct (usually they just ballpark check IRR/MOICs), second is deal knowledge, and third is knowing what's happening around the world / in the economy.
Would it be a complete waste of my time to try and get up to speed on SaaS in ~1 day in case I get tech specific interviews?..
Honestly; it is a very inefficient usage of time. Your competition for tech specific spots is people who are in tech groups and have been keeping up with trends across the past 6 months - longer than that; going to be hard to get to that in one-day. This is made worse by the fact that you are (by your own admission) behind on the behavioral and deal prep, which are absolutely mandatory for all recruiting. Unless you are in tech and already following it (in which case, you probably know enough about SaaS), would heavily reccomend focusing on the more generalist things (which by itself is a tall order to get done in 48 hours or even a week) and mandatory for all processes.
Don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees.
In a similar position to OP (good luck sir). Is it even worth going through the on-cycle process / are there any success stories from people that prepped with a similar timeline in past cycles?
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