Everyone seems to broadly say PE has better hours (excluding mega funds) than IB. Would like to know the extent this is true, specifically for growth equity.
could someone describe hours for a good and bad week, and how often they have each week? Downtime?
Pretty burnt out from banking and unsure if the hours will be better at pe, so trying to figure it out. Thanks.
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My hours are worse, and any given hour is somewhat more intense
What type of firm are you at?
Big, not massive
Worked at two different PE funds, one LMM and one large cap. Both better than banking, but large cap lifestyle is still pretty brutal (~80 hours/week even when not on live deals, lots of unnecessary fire drills). LMM fund was closer to ~50 hours when not on something live.
My hours were way worse in PE. Much less of needing to be on call 24/7 and moments where I had to drop everything I was doing last minute, but overall hours and WLB became a significant downgrade. Didn't start like that, but then a new group head took over and ran the team into the ground.
prior to the new group head, how were your hours. Also you said were worse in pe, im assuming that means you left? If this is the case, do you think had the new group head not come and ruin everything, could you have seen yourself staying at that shop/in pe
So I wasn't in your standard PE firm - worked at a family office in an allocator role but did a mix of LP investing / co-invest / secondaries / occasional direct deals. I don't know any other LPs / allocators that work even close to these types of hours on a regular basis, whether it be at a foundation, endowment, pension, family office, or what have you. It was ridiculous because people join these roles for a better lifestyle at the tradeoff of comp, so I was basically getting the worst of both worlds - lower pay as an allocator but still working the hours as if I was at a buyouts shop.
Also it would be one thing if all these hours worked were because it was all tied to deal-related stuff. Unfortunately there was so much wasted BS shit and gaslighting where you were told to do something and then ignored, then months later a favored team member brought over from the old firm "took lead" on the project as if all that work you first did never existed in the first place. So many self-promoting deliverables too that only served to make the new group head look good, with barely any credit given (if it was given at all) to the people who actually did the work.
Before this guy joined I thought this would be a firm that I could potentially be at for the rest of my career and I was genuinely happy (you can see how the tone in my old posts changed over time). Alas, things change. What also didn't help is that over time a bunch of people quit (wow, what a surprise) and then hiring wasn't prioritized at all because "it was our fault we weren't stepping up" despite already working way more and underwriting far more deals than ever before.
How often do you work on Saturdays after 8pm let's say?
2.5 weekends out of 4, generally chunky stretches
PE has a pretty steep learning curve so if you're at any decent PE shop, your overall hours probably won't be that much less than IB in the beginning, but you'll have much more control over your schedule. Growth equity is usually a bit better than buyout.
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