What were your first couple of months/year like? How did it change over the months and how was the support system different than banking? Are there common stereotypes that simply aren't true?
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PE Associate coming up on first year. In short, there is little to no support system compared to banking. My work is not checked before going external & model is very loosely checked before going to IC + the expectation that you contribute your own thoughts while bearing the responsibility of all the analytics / memo writing
Think it took me a couple months to adjust to the “responsibility” upgrade from banking. Other shit is just less comradery with associates & the team, feels like a very bland working environment w/ oversensitive type A people. Thought things became easier once you gain the trust of people & can push back / defend your perspective
Long-winded but noticed that I have adjusted my weekend lifestyle to be more restorative - runs, general social time w/ friends but less booze, more reading / hitting the parks to stay mentally balanced
With little to no support system, how did you go about learning things? I imagine the first couple of months there was definitely a period where you had to adjust to new processes/new ways of modelling+best practices
For me personally knowing that I’m not the most technically gifted PE associate, I tried to learn our firm’s deal process timeline / workstreams as quickly as possible to give myself extra time to sort through things. Just gives you a buffer to teach yourself & ask questions in advance of “work being assigned”
Most teams have some sort of diligence / workstream tracker & would dig through prior work from Associates who received promotions. Started to consolidate examples of certain workstreams / emails so I could knock out things quicker
Agree with everything the other guy said. No support system and the first few months are pretty rough / learning on the fly until you get a few reps in. After that deals are repetitive enough that you get used to it.
Portco work was really tough to get the hang of for awhile as you're asked to come up with solutions to problems you've likely never had experience in unless you worked in an ops role prior to banking. Felt a real heavy dose of imposter syndrome there till at least a year in.
First impressions are critical. It’s human nature to develop opinions of others almost immediately, and those opinions are sticky. Your first deals will have an outsized impact on how people perceive you for the entire two years. Once a reputation begins to build, it’s very difficult to reverse as it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in the minds of your coworkers.
TLDR: take the first staffings very seriously
but isn’t everyone new once they first start (ie, coming from a 6 week or so break from banking / consulting and therefore likely not at their best)? or do you mean the work ethic is judged but not necessarily your initial technical skill?
You will not be expected to know how to do everything on day 1, but people will expect you to learn quickly and not make obvious errors. You won’t know how to build a perfect IC deck on your first day, but you will be expected to have modeling competence early on. Things also like having numbers tie between the deck and original source materials. If you submit a slide where the historical financials don’t tie to the CIM, that’s a big problem.
this, the first impressions will make or break your experience. This industry is full of neurotic psychos who think they are masters of the universe, was eye opening to see the amount of politics and gatekeeping that goes around.
so in banking it seems like work ethic > technical skill
in PE i imagine its more equal but how important is knowing everything before you start? feel like the BB education is very different than boutique/MM education
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