There's absolutely no way the grass in PE isn't greener. Zero chance it isn't. I've been working 7 days a week for the past month, 95+ hours. Have had to work on holidays too when the market was closed!! No way the grass in PE isn't greener. It just has to be better on the other side. At least for my current situation. I doubt even think Apollo is this bad.
| +177 | Future of PE | 38 | 7h |
| +33 | Best industry/job for entrepreneurship? | 11 | 1d |
| +25 | What are you actually using AI for in PE? | 7 | 21m |
| +19 | Burn Out in PE - What Comes Next? | 3 | 2d |
| +15 | Buyside in London with nice WLB and pay | 8 | 4h |
| +12 | Value Creation Initiatives (That aren't add-ons) | 3 | 22h |
| +10 | Undergrad summer PE analyst positions | 3 | 3d |
| +9 | 2028 Oncycle PE | 11 | 2d |
| +9 | Question about HH 2028 | 2 | 2d |
| +8 | Lindsay Goldberg FT 27 | 21 | 1d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
Your hours/lifestyle will likely improve, but I’ve found PE to be a lot more stressful. Lot more responsibility and less oversight. Your mistakes can have actual major negative impacts. Regardless of what your banking associates will say, most of your banking mistakes will be of little consequence.
Any common mistakes that fresh associates are more likely to make?
Cap Tables
PE in rough sprints is going to be worse for 1-2 months at a time. On the plus side, you're able to recover when things ease up unless you're at a place with hellish culture.
The job itself is inherently much more interesting than banking. If you have at least some remote interest / curiosity in investing and having exposure to operations, you'll find the work itself is much more thoughtful, meaningful and impactful too - all things equal, if the WLB is the same (buyside is usually better though), but the work is more interesting, you're still better off too. Banking sucks - there's a reason very very few people regret moving from IB to PE.
New PE Asso checking in - The grass is in fact not greener
Grass was less green
in terms of hours or career progression lol
It was legendary how much it jumpstarted my career relative to where I was
You have more predictability and some level of control over your hours (i.e. your Friday is unlikely to get blown up on 2 hours notice) but your stress will likely go up, and WLB is about a wash.
IB juniors have very little ownership (yeah you own the model, but not the project) and if stuff is wrong or the deal goes south it's ultimately on someone else because about 10 people are supposed to check your work. In PE you have your own deals and are expected to own the project, check your own work, and take responsibility in a much larger way, which is a lot of stress
You're also expected to have meaningful presentation minutes with your team and/or IC whereas in banking you do very little presenting until later on in your career. Takes a minute to get used to and the stress never really goes away (at least it hasn’t yet for me).
It’s not much better man. If you’re itching for a more normal life I can assure you any type of deal related job is not going to be that. Sure you may have better hours on the margin but the unpredictability of things and the volume of work will never quite go away
Also, in banking you aren’t accountable for anything apart from how you got a couple numbers on a page. In PE, you own the deliverables so you have a lot more to hold pen on. That said, it is way more interesting and you learn a lot
A few things about PE (from my experience):
- You're "on" a lot more than in banking. I felt like my brain was off for 60% of the time I was in banking, so even if I was "working" 90 hours a week, I didn't actually feel too mentally exhausted. A similar sprint heading into an IC presentation is much more mentally draining (but also satisfying if you feel you learned something)
- The worst parts for me (worse than the darkest parts of banking) were dealing with hopelessly fucked portfolio companies. There are definitely some scenarios where you can turn them around and have an incredibly rewarding experience, but there are some cases where they're fundamentally broken and everyone involved is absolutely miserable. It isn't even an hours thing -- just having to watch everything drag to an ignominious death is miserable
- PE is a lot more personality driven. Banking kinda just sucks everywhere since it's a client service business, but in PE you're often setting your own deadlines. This is great if you're given autonomy to do things, but there's always that one principal with insatiable anxiety who's going to make you jump on every new dataroom upload or go down meaningless wormholes analyzing a dataset. Plus there are often sprints when playing in auction processes, dealing with lenders / third parties, etc. so there's always short fuse projects (but usually you see these coming days or weeks in advance).
Agree 100% with this too. And then the hours can also be bad if it was a bad deal to start with and you don't have any negotiating power but your seniors refuse to let it die. All the hours you put in here will also not be reflected in your bonus although you weren't the one who chose to invest in the stupid deal in the first place.
Have also seen people who went on the record saying an investment was bad get tagged to it anyway, struggle with it till C11, and then get negatively associated with it.
It's better in some ways and definitely not at others. Very fund dependent.
1. You can farm out work to the bankers -> you can also get poor quality work back that you have to take ownership for. We all end up thinking "there was no way I was this sloppy / retarded / annoying when I was in banking", but they also often have less context than you. There have been multiple occasions where I'd rather do the work myself. You can complain if the bankers are really bad, but more often than not the VP / MD will just override you because bankers are really hired for their senior bankers, not for their junior team
2. You can also be doing banking level work again... without banking pay. If you are in a firm that loves to do co-investors, be prepared for this. Some co-investors are annoying as f*ck and treat you like a mini research know-it-all firm. And capital is getting tight now so you have to deal with them because the days where they threw money and GPs and shut up are gone.
3. You do have interesting work, but it comes with responsibility. You have to take more judgement calls and explain to your MD / VP. I've found most MDs to be gracious and decisive in this. If you did your work and can explain how you got to your assumptions, they're generally pleased. VPs are a heck lot more nervous and will sometimes fight you on your view and then fight you when you agree with their view. I just want to go home man.
4. Everything is still about deals... just at a much higher level. If your fund is raising capital easily and painlessly, it's great. If not, it can be worse than banking
Rerum nihil blanditiis nisi aspernatur itaque labore eaque. Veritatis cumque velit sunt blanditiis. Praesentium quis facilis sapiente sed officia delectus. Labore nesciunt delectus hic ullam occaecati ut repudiandae. Vero laboriosam eum modi corrupti.
Aut repellat ut id quod. Nihil laboriosam nulla cum vel odio vero aliquid iusto. Enim a consequatur et magnam rerum. Recusandae voluptas enim alias explicabo dicta doloremque consequatur. Hic quam natus perspiciatis ut rem. Sapiente necessitatibus laudantium eum nesciunt aspernatur.
Nostrum fugiat doloremque voluptatem quibusdam numquam vero quisquam. Dolor consequuntur officia quae qui recusandae nemo et. Odio et et exercitationem voluptatum voluptatem rerum.
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...