Hey guys,
I have an offer from Bain Capital to start as an associate, and wanted to know if anyone had any idea what the working lifestyle (hours especially) is like?
How deal related is it, and is there downtime between deals?
I have to decide by early next week, so thanks in advance for your help.
PE - killer hours. Other groups, not too sure.
don't know that there's necessarily downtime between deals, but obviously life will be better when deal velocity is slow
if you're in banking, bain cap lifestyle will be better, but hours are still going to be rough. best described to me as "better than 1st yr in banking, worse than 2nd yr." obviously a substantial difference... if you're a consultant, hours will be considerably worse
despite hours, etc... PE in general tends to be a more stressful job. you're much more responsible for your work and you really have to pressure test your output. former banking analysts describe it as "fewer hours in the office, but in general, much more exhausting due to the weight of responsibility." so it seems like, while there's downtime in banking, in PE you're usually working straight through the day.
congrats on the offer!
I have several friends that are or were associates at Bain Capital. The people in the junior classes seem to be pretty tight and they really enjoy working with each other (and some of them spend a fair amount of time hanging out after work too). I have no idea if work-life balance is really that bad because I haven't heard them complain about it. A couple of them definitely log pretty long hours but it does tend to be deal-related, and I guess it's possible that they enjoy the work and the culture there so much that the hours just fly by. Besides, there are days when people cut out at 8PM too -- usually if you started your day off early with an early morning conference call, or if there is just nothing to do.
I know people here talk about the hours at Bain Capital being bad, but I don't get the sense that they're truly brutal in the way that Blackstone and KKR are. Besides, we're still talking about private equity so it's not a 9 to 5 job. As a matter of perspective, I normally work about 65 hours a week - sometimes 80+ if we're at some pivotal point of the deal process, i.e. getting an LOI out, closing a deal, or whatever - but since I understand and and expected this as part of the PE job, are the hours really so "bad"? Perhaps not...
Anyway, congratulations on the offer...that's awesome. Let us know what you decide. I think you'd do well to ask junior people who work there what they think, and am pretty sure they would give you similar perspectives.
From friends at and formerly at Bain vs. other places like KKR and Blackstone, hours seem to be better than what you'd find at other large PEs.
That said, nothing in finance - at least in the sense of IBD, PEs and HFs - will ever be a lifestyle job, whether you're an Analyst or Senior Partner. I see Partners' vacations get interrupted all the time, they're on the road constantly and even if you don't have clients in the same sense that bankers do, if you're doing a deal there's a ton of work involved and it needs to be completed quickly (more than anything else, time kills deals).
There's always downtime between deals, especially when, you know, no deals are happening - kind of like right now (somewhat of an exaggeration but you get the point).
.
Bain Capital Lifestyle/Hours/Culture (Originally Posted: 07/18/2015)
..
Ipsum mollitia mollitia voluptas in. Voluptatem aliquid provident ipsa consequatur possimus illum quis id. Voluptatibus molestias non facilis beatae et labore blanditiis non.
Consequuntur iusto aut modi aut consectetur. Et iste laboriosam sunt consequatur autem est. Qui est vel sequi enim. Nesciunt repellat numquam ut placeat cum.
Maxime explicabo iusto accusantium eum. Doloremque quis quibusdam fugiat aliquid et veritatis. Quod non voluptas quis accusamus temporibus. Et assumenda dolore cumque temporibus aut. Nihil totam fugiat accusamus quaerat qui repellendus. Non quo ipsa et magni qui laboriosam atque.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...