Best California MM PE firms with good WLB?

Hi all,

Currently a first year associate at a MF (well respected non-flagship strategy with $20-30B AUM) in NYC. I’m from California originally, and I’ve come to realize I absolutely hate 1) the weather here in the Northeast, and 2) the horrible WLB of my current job. I want to stay in PE as I really do enjoy it, but not at consistent 80 hour weeks. Are there any good (preferably growing) MM firms in California with better WLB, maybe averaging 60 hours a week or so (I understand this would be a mix of 50 and 70 hour weeks)? I’ve heard HGGC and Altamont might fit the bill (though I’m not sure on WLB). Any advice?

13 Comments
 

xyzdonttell:

HGGC associates work hard too, not too far away from what you are doing now


I was on a deal they didn’t end up bidding on and they did a crazy amount of diligence emailing at all hours. Seemed tough there. Nice guys tho

 
Most Helpful

Places that I've heard are manageable culture and WLB-wise (e.g. not extremely sweaty). Truth is any reputable PE firm is going to be pretty sweaty, so these are just the places I've heard anecdotally have decent culture to make up for it.

 

Associate 1 in IB - Cov

Places that I've heard are manageable culture and WLB-wise (e.g. not extremely sweaty). Truth is any reputable PE firm is going to be pretty sweaty, so these are just the places I've heard anecdotally have decent culture to make up for it.

  • Knox Lane
  • Marlin Equity Partners
  • Shamrock
  • Freeman Spogli
  • BDT (not sure if the LA office has any juniors)
  • GI Partners
  • Parthenon Capital
  • FFL
  • HIG and Audax (believe it or not, I've heard that the SF offices of those two firms are much less grindy than their Miami / NY and Boston counterparts, respectively)

look at Audax junior churn (particularly in SF) and tell me it's not one of if not the sweatiest shop on the street. more than one person on the junior team has been hospitalized.

 

I do not know about the rest of this list, but the Audax part is absolutely false. It is an absolute sweatshop and the people are very abrasive and aggressive. The associates I know at Audax work more than most of my friends at megafunds including sweatier MF teams.  The only firms Audax has good culture compared to is maybe Veritas, who is the only firm I have heard worst things about culture-wise.

 

is hospitalization common for PE firms like hig/audax and how does it compare to the sweaty groups in banking?

 

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