Apollo From Non Target?
1st year at BB (citi/bofa) in coverage looking to break into Apollo or KKR. I went to a non target (within top 50) with 3.9 GPA and 31 ACT. Don't really have connections at either firm, but I am hungry and a top performer at my current bank. Is this possible with my stats? How does a MF process work vs a MM?
I know someone who went to apollo from penn state lol
For PE or to answer the phones?
to make your mom whole
Relatively low ACT for this industry. Non-Target. Not top BB. Unless you're black, latino, or a woman, Apollo or KKR are going to be very difficult. If you were at a target and were in levfin/sponsors at Bofa/Citi, I'd say differently. I'm not trying to be a dick. I'm telling you what is realistic and what is not. Going to or not going to Apollo or KKR won't make or break your career and it has nothing to do with how good you are at the job, but it just isn't realistic for your background.
You should be fine. Your school should not hold you back. You're at a BB doing banking so have proven yourself. Most ppl on wso have no idea what is going on, so I wouldn't let these silly posters discourage you.
EDIT: Who the fuck is giving me MS? I am a former MF guy so I know what I am saying here.
You're fine. The more work experience you have the less your school matters. What matters is deal experience and complexity.
I don’t think being from a non-target school will be your problem. The problem is your bank tbh. Apollo’s most recent generalist class for S’24 is 5 PJT and 4 EVR (I heard about 1 Lazard RX kid potentially but idk if true). I know 2 of the EVR kids are RX and the other 2 are M&A, but those M&A kids are URM. Not to say it’s impossible but stats don’t weigh in your favor realistically.
Biggest tip I can give is you need to make it in front of Ratio’s co-heads (MHB and VQ) and they have to love you or else they’re not putting you in front of their #1 client. They are likely your biggest initial hurdle.
Also, assuming that you’re going to spend a 3rd year and recruit for S’25, I imagine they’re going to want you to have some solid RX deal exposure.
The real question is you came to those 2 PE shops by any metric other than “wso prestige ranking”.
You wouldn’t take an offer from Blackstone? Or Warburg?
Any MF or even UMM is insanely difficult to land a job at. I’m at a UMM now (ignore WSO title) and there’s resumes that we don’t even interview that come from HYP -> GS/MS/JPM. There’s just so many qualified candidates and so few seats.
If you want a big fund, that’s understandable and there’s probably ~25 funds that are relatively comparable. Maybe 10 are true “MFs” but I promise it’s not a meaningful difference. But you can’t just pick two of the most selective seats in all of finance and be like “can I get these” when the kid with a 4.0 from Harvard at PJT can’t even count on an Apollo offer.
Spot on. Also, KKR and APO could not be more different from one another besides being MF/prestigious. At one, you’d be recruiting for generalist “buyout” with a heavy flavor for credit, and another you’d recruit for as an industry specialist focused on more traditional buyout. The experiences would not be remotely similar.
There's a Baruch College guy killing it at KKR. I'm not saying it's true, but it could be conceivably possible that his daddy was a normal person in the 70% income bracket therefore couldn't send his kid to a waspy prep school and college, but maybe JUST MAYBE he is actually better at putting together a financial model than the Exeter, Andover Hotchkiss folk. I know this may be Stephen Hawking string theory level confusing for some of y'all, but it is possible.