Are fewer 2025/2026 analysts interested in PE?
Among the classes of 2025 and 2026, I have noticed fewer people who seem locked in on PE.
A lot of analysts would rather stay in banking or eventually move into corporate development, corporate strategy, or a startup. More noticeably, many are not even prepped and ready to interview for PE, not just for certain funds, but for any fund.
Are others seeing the same thing? Is PE genuinely becoming less appealing, or is this just specific to the people I know on the west coast?
No. I do think a lot more are not interested in staying in PE. Know a lot of current analyst 2s in IB who are going to PE with plans to later go into something else. PE is still viewed as a finishing school for IB. There are overall more people recruiting now than a decade or so ago largely due to bigger class sizes across banks. Prep quality will always vary by year for every group.
Current second year. Very few (if any) people in my class at my group want to stay in banking, but would say few are interested in PE. Many see it as more of the same in a lot of ways
What are they planning to do then?
Hedge fund, credit, IR, asset backed finance, corp dev
I think the kool-aid for an 'investing career' has kinda dried out? I would not say people are less interested. I think people are still interested, but more so due the fact that it is still the well-trotten path and when you start to hate banking, it is much more easier/natural to transition to a fund next rather than to exit to industry directly.
That being said, I do think that the PE industry is seen as MUCH LESS attractive for staying on beyond ~2 years then it once was.
I remember when I was in college and peope had this grand illusions of millions of $ of carry materializing rather in the medium term and a really rewarding/cool career path with "less hours than banking bro".
These days people largely woke up to the fact that it is more like banking in terms of the hours with more pressure, less clear pathways to promotion and potentially lower earnings potential if you don't make it to the top.
Also think in general the mask of prestigious finance careers came off in general with social media and those hundreds of videos and interviews and podcasts of "my day at GS / Ex-BainCap associate tells about their time in PE". If you get constantly bombarded with such content the exclusivity and mystique of the industry vanishes away, because you see that the people working in PE are not living like Gordan Gekko.
Does that reasonate with some of you guys?
Hey apologies for unrelated topic - but seeking advice!
Could you please share the materials you'd have to build Business intuition that'll be tested in PE interviews? I'm trying to find 400IB Guides equivalent for PE but I'm unable to do so. Would be grateful for any advice/materials!
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