One of my least favorite things about IB is the emphasis on making my work aesthetically pleasing (a touch I don’t seem to have). Is this any better in PE? I would hope at least there’s a bit less emphasis given the slides aren’t going to a client.
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This won't be a satisfying answer, but it totally depends on your firm and with whom you work. Even within my firm, I've worked with Principals/VPs who couldn't care less about formatting (e.g., just copy-pasting Excel outputs to PPT and adding a few text box callouts), while others are more particular about consistent slide coloring, font size, etc.
Relative to banking and consulting, though, I'd say there is generally less emphasis on slide formatting in PE (especially for internal team or even IC materials, but pitch or management meeting materials may require some more formatting fastidiousness).
Formatting is important to the extent it makes the analysis easier to explain. No one cares about color pallets, decimals, etc. None of that matters.
If your PE shop is full of ex-consultants like Bain Cap, then yeah.
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