Did you recruit for PE as an Analyst 1 or Analyst 2?
A lot of the people from my summer internship class already seem like they want to recruit for PE in their first analyst year when they start this upcoming summer. Is it better to do on-cycle in the first year and see if anything sticks or wait until analyst 2 to recruit? Will be joining an EB if that helps. Thanks!
Only prep and do on-cycle if you want one of the firms who exclusively recruit on-cycle (Apollo, KKR, etc.) if your target firm is not on this list, only recruit when you feel ready. I am a top EB and get email recruiting invites on almost a daily basis, they are not all gold atar shops - but I think a variety of top tier firms recruit off cycle 6mos. - 1 year in if you push it.
Remember you can only strike out at a firm once, and if you flounder at one firm it’s likely that HH will write you off and not send you other similarly tiered opportunities. What you should do is really do your homework on the investment strategies, port cos, associate experience etc. at all the firms you are interested in, get a list of 5-10 shops you would be happy to accept an offer from - then prepare according to the timeline they typically follow.
Absolutely agree with above re: don't do on-cycle if you're not ready.
That said, next fall's on-cycle (FT 2024s) will be for 2026 PE starts. If you do on-cycle as an A2 the following year, you'll have to take an extra analyst year since you'll be recruiting for 2027 starts. Therefore, if you are able to get yourself prepped during senior spring, know what you want, etc, then there is some advantage to doing it early. I'm a bit out of the analyst rhythm so someone can fill in exactly when it was last year, but it was very early - think my analysts had been on the desk a day or two and those who had prepped the best earlier in the year got offers.
Of course there are plenty of offcycle opportunities, but if you want one of those really top-tier MFs they fill most / all of their class in oncycle. If you're flexible, maybe not convinced on MF and place more emphasis on fit vs. the shitshow of oncycle, off-cycle may be for you.
Typically only those with a larger fund size (call it $3B+) do oncycle, and even then it is a minority of MMs, and fewer every year as it gets earlier.
Your small MM/LMM are not competing with KKR/APO for candidates and thus are 1. not interested in interviewing people at 3am on a Saturday before they've even started working and 2. value culture fit/skillset and will usually wait to interview so they can make sure you actually know what you're talking about after a bit of work.
If I were you I would do your recruiting prep now, maybe be ready for oncycle but plan to do offcycle. These interviews are much less crazed / extended timeframe so you're not going to be at a big disadvantage in learning or anything. But studying now is a decent use of time so you're not wasting precious free time once you start trying to learn LBO models.
Recently just wrapped up on cycle - found this to be a very helpful course to learn PE modeling and general concepts overall
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