Do you trust the people at your fund?
Do you trust the people at your fund? Is everything a calculated political game or do you have actual genuine relationships with certain colleagues? I aim for the latter because life is too short, but perhaps I am naive.
Based on the most helpful WSO content, navigating trust and relationships in a fund can be a mixed bag. Some funds foster a culture where genuine relationships thrive, and colleagues value each other's input, creating an environment of mutual respect and collaboration. For example, at certain funds, even senior partners recognize the value of associate and principal input, which can outweigh their own decisions. This kind of culture allows for real connections and trust to develop.
However, in many other funds, the environment can lean heavily toward calculated political games. As noted, 75% of firms may not have this collaborative culture, and instead, relationships might be more transactional or politically driven. In such cases, trust can be harder to come by, and navigating office politics becomes a critical skill.
Ultimately, while aiming for genuine relationships is admirable and can lead to a more fulfilling career, it's essential to remain aware of the political dynamics at play. Building an "all-weather network" of ethical and substantive professionals who value you beyond your position is a smart strategy to balance both trust and practicality.
Sources: Don't Throw Away Your Shot - Networking with Senior Professionals as an MBA, Let's be honest about PE, https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/guide-to-office-politics-part-i?customgpt=1
never trust
They’re virtually all psychopathic nutcases who will throw you under the bus for minimal gain
If you can't have authentic relationships with co-workers then something is fundamentally wrong with the culture. Office politics are inevitable but that doesn't mean every interaction is some calculated move. I truly care about my colleagues and want to see them do well.
You can do it, and I have some, but never fully trust and always cover yourself.
Never trust anyone, never vent to anyone, never expect anything that is not explicitly in writing.
People in PE come off as vanilla agreeable and pleasant. But everyone in this industry is at minimum very transactional and self interested and, at worst, high ego and vindictive. Do not get deluded by charm, niceties, or the veneer of pleasantry.
Manage people’s perception of you carefully and be careful not to get caught in the crossfire of politics and territorial disputes between partners. More often than not, they’re happy to sacrifice a junior if it means keeping the peace among partners who, despite working together for decades, have the knives out for each other.
And, most of all, look out for yourself. Keep your own network alive, take interviews for lateral opportunities to stay fresh, focus on building skills and experience that makes you more valuable. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and give your firm sole control to make or break your career.
The irony that the solution to dealing with self-interested people is to become self interested.
Either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain…
Not at my last fund but do at my current fund. Partner is awesome, mid levels treat me well and am friends with my associate peers. Last fund was polar opposite - everyone was out for each other and everyone had knives out.
Culture matters a lot :)
Trust is for the naïve, who will get slaughtered in the long run in this industry. Never trust, always verify. Develop trust with operators, LPs, and bankers you trade dealflow with. But blindly trusting your colleagues is a great way to get blindsided should anything go wrong/politics come into play. There're only so many fees to go around.
Edit: copying my other comment since I've gotten a couple messages about it and I think it gives more context to my reasoning for the above statement re: it's naïve for people to approach this industry thinking blanket trust should be ever be given.
It's highly variable and very much depends on the person and context. There is a sliding scale of honesty you can have with people, so keep your eyes open and don't force it with people who have shown they don't operate in good faith. The relationships where you can actually speak semi-freely are much rarer, and even then, you should always be aware of the personal incentives at play.
Don’t understand how people can spend so much of their lives in environments like the ones being described in other comments
It's not just PE this goes for most of buy-side finance...
It’s true of all of corporate America and a lot of government / military jobs too. Politics is real everywhere and people need scapegoats to divert blame to survive.
The only difference is PE tends to involve relatively more interpersonal conflict and is rife with ambiguous, yet existential, problems, so the likelihood of stepping on toes or scapegoated and getting purged is relatively higher.
How different is this than banking? I feel like my analyst peers and I all are super friendly with each other. I am just shocked this is the case in PE because it's the same people just 2 years on. Does the advice here apply to other people at your rank like other associates or more so to your seniors?
I'm mainly referring to VP+. At associate its basically you against the world and you just need to work hard and learn. The drama really ramps when you hit mid levels and beyond.
it varies, I have friend A from one top MF where VP+ levels are not close at all, and friend B at another MF where everyone has each other on instagram
Boils down to if you think you can genuinely be friends with the people you work with. I have my friends and then my “work friends”, but the latters can only become the formers if/when I leave a firm and don’t intend to come back. Maybe it’s miopic idk, just can’t trust people you work with to the same degree as you would a friend. Just my $0.02
Honestly sometimes it feels like there is someone out to get you. Especially when you are in a rut.
In actuality it’s 99% one of two things:
1) The people are generally nice and want to help just don’t really know how or it feels too uncomfortable/ awkward for them
2) People just are not thinking about you. You do not occupy much of their headspace.
Bottom line, people being cut-throat is rare. People generally want you to do well. It makes their lives easier.
Worth adding though. This industry generally attract pretty type A boring people. The downside of the job being well paid and prestigious is that you have people who do it for those reasons and are not really interested. Can make the workplace pretty boring if you get the wrong crowd.
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!
Take it from me, as a FGLI student who was a QuestBridge Scholar to a Duke/Dartmouth/Brown type school.
I come from a rust belt town where a lot of the married older folks met as coworkers at the then-prosperous manufacturing plants.
As a result, in addition to my school not having an undergrad business curriculum, I did not know how to behave in a professional setting, and while I did fine during my IB years, I got chewed up and spat out during my PE years.
After a short unemployment period, where I was able to review my mistakes, I got back on my feet with another UMM PE firm, but in retrospect, a lot of the hard knocks I took could have been avoided.
Yeah, the hours are long in this industry, and if you are not used to it, you can have moments of vulnerability, but never overshare. And always always keep work and life separate.
I have been backstabbed and thrown under the bus over it.
Take it from me who learned the hard way.
Agreed. Especially true if you come from middle class background or below. People will weaponize your class ignorance against you in subtle but compounding ways. You will be the "hard worker who may never have the polish needed to succeed", even if that is factually incorrect.
Class ignorance is very real in this industry, and it can and will be used against you.
While the backstabbing was extremely excruciating when it happened, I am grateful that I got to experience it as a young person, because it can have even more severe consequences when you are older and deeper into your career.
America truly is no country for old men, especially white and Asian males who do not come from privilege, and learning these hard lessons at a young age has paid dividends later in my career.
I just could not see it at the time.
Dittoing espeically the two comments above mine. Don't learn the hard way like us.
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