Does anyone like PE

I enjoy it. At a large MM. Out of the office by 6ish most days, some are longer but have never pulled 100+ hour weeks and we’re never full sprinting for an IOI and rarely pre-MP so the longest hours are usually only putting together IC memos in the later stages, but much much shorter than the absurd memos discussed on here. At 280 all in with the opportunity to move up as well. There’s definitely good firms out there but this website is an echo chamber for the kids that solely cared about the MF name on their resume like it was some golden ticket from Willy Wonka only to show up and get crushed with busy work and no opportunity for advancement. It’s comical. The industry is so mature at this point, you can find out essentially anything about the culture at these scaled firms but people continue to line up for the whipping post. If the firm tells you they put together full memos and models for every IOI, you will not sleep unless you’re on 5 person deal teams (which is unheard of), do the math.

Being an associate sucks but it definitely gets better 

Seems like it's veyr firm dependent. In my 4th year now in PE and it's been better than IB in every way... Work way less (~60 hours/week) and the works more interesting. Pay might (?) be lower but not bad enough that I'd even notice (making $400+ this year). I would say the first 6 months to a year are tough cause you have to get up to speed with very little training, but once you have a few reps it's all the same.

People tend to like the idea of PE more than the actual day to day.  And humans generally like the feeling of power, which PE somewhat provides ("masters of the universe").  Add in top percentile compensation and boom, we love PE.

ASO1 at an UMM fund focused on a broader definition of infrastructure.

Been here for 4 months. Best decision of my life. My firm is focused on thematic sourcing and I’m splitting my time the following way:

- 40% thematic thesis development
- 40% live deal execution
- 10% random portco asks

Currently working 9-7 pm most days. Throw in a few hours of work at night 2-3x a week and maybe 2-3 hours over the weekend total.

Everyone has families and gets along super well. Actively encouraged to disconnect and recharge on weekends.

Total comp for 1st year is 325k. Based in NYC.

At a MF in the special sits/distressed arm. I’ve liked it a lot. I knew the hours were going to be long, but since I has that expectation, I feel like it has manageable. I’ve found the whole experience really intellectually interesting (probably partly because of the special sits/distressed angle) and I feel like my opinion matters, at least a bit, on how we view opportunities. TC is great and I feel like I do get enough time to unwind, though generally I’m very tired.

I think it’d be more helpful for people more experienced than ASO1, who are basically 3 months into the job, to respond. Frankly the job is still new, you haven’t experienced the full workload of the job, and you don’t know what it’s like to compete for promotion, etc. 

No

Gonna add my 2 cents on a relatively positive note here in case helpful or interesting. As usual it wound up a bit more verbose than I intended so feel free to stop reading here.

I'm just posting to flag that selection bias and negativity bias can commingle to affect the responses on WSO - that is to say that many people on this board are likely posting here seeking advice for, or venting about, their experience in finance and more likely to share the negative experiences vs. positive ones. You don't meet up with your buddies for beers and tell them all the ways you love the girl you're seeing as often as you might complain about the ball-breaking she's been getting up to lately, or the LA-bimbo-realtor-reality show she forces upon you on Sunday nights when there's an obvious superior choice on the TV. Same shit applies here.

I did around 3 years in MM PE. Despite what my posting history during that time might suggest, I do not regret my time there, and definitely had numerous positive experiences. With the benefit of several years worth of hindsight, I can say I would do it again. In my experience it wasn't without political bullshit and wasn't fundamentally different work product than banking, but involved fundamentally different ways of thinking and conducting analysis, and much more detail work on operational strategy and execution. It really helped frame the way I think about operating and growing a business and I use that everyday in CorpDev / CorpStrat. The best learning came from our firm, my colleagues, or myself making mistakes (which was less than helpful for an associate's stress level), but it was a tremendous learning experience and made me both a better person personally and stronger professionally.

Sure, you may find yourself hating your life 6 months into the PE seat as another poster above does.. Conversely, you might have a great experience and make your way up to BSD-status at the new fund. You might wonder why so many WSO posters complain about hellish PE life when yours ain't so bad. You might meet a future business partner you'll launch a firm of your own with some day. You might find an otherwise unavailable amazing job opportunity - your "off-ramp" out of high finance - like I did. The worst case outcome here is the former, but if you stick it out for two years, at the minimum you'll find yourself with a robust resume and deep rolodex that will position you for future success regardless of industry or jurisdiction. Not a terrible outcome, all things considered, and easier said than done.. but none of us are here for "easy". Naysayers would counter that these could come from banking as well, and while that's equally possible, you won't get the same breadth of experience staying there in my view.

PE (and high finance as a whole) is not all roses by any means but its not always as bad as we like to say when we commiserate on WSO boards or over cocktails following a deal sprint. RE: the top comment in this thread, my first 6 months - hell, call it my first 18 months - of PE were pretty difficult too. It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier... but you gotta do it every day - that's the hard part. 

Congrats on the offer by the way. Best of luck.

PE is a great and intellectually stimulating job. The problem is that the culture is extremely hierarchical and backwards. Seniors and mid levels treat juniors in ways that, if they were being completely honest, they know is completely unacceptable. I look back now on some of my associate days interactions with mid levels and seniors and I’m horrified and angry. I’m the same age and seniority as those people were and I’d never cross some of the boundaries they crossed. 

It’s somewhat understandable for people who grew up in the industry to act that way - they never knew any better. But the Post MBA career switchers who had early careers in industries where it would be unacceptable to violate people’s boundaries, have no excuses. A lot of them are just insecure, angry, and small people who want to abuse juniors because it makes them feel powerful for once in their lives. 

No. Hope this helps!

as someone who grew up dirt poor, working manual labor jobs from a young age, YES, I LOVE MY JOB!!!

i had zero opportunity growing up and most of my childhood + high school friends either went down a dark path in life or are dead.

i consider myself very fortunate that a target school took a chance on me and gave a full ride, where an alum from a similar upbringing was generous enough to hook me up with an lmm pe buyside gig sophomore year and help me land an eb ibd gig junior year in a top group. 

i will admit that i was definitely not ready for the eb my junior year, was likely the worst intern in the firm's history (probably still am), and, not surprisingly, i did not get a return offer, in addition to graduating into 08, with no job and my family unable to take care of me.

i was jobless for more than a year, working a series of odd jobs, from call center to tutoring, before an lmm ibd took a chance on me and i was able to lateral to an eb ibd shop from there before moving onto mf pe. 

above all else, i was very fortunate to have experienced failure while i was a junior in college and as a fresh graduate in 08 because it made me understand the industry and office politics better.

hear me out: it is MUCH BETTER to fail early on than later, especially down the road when you have a family and people who depend on you.

yes, my years in IBD + PE were indeed demanding and i was very tired, but it was and still is a lot of fun. i still am very tired, but i have no complaints and im glad that i did it.

bottom line, i am beyond grateful to the universe to work in a career that has been the greatest learning experience for me and one that allowed me to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty that has run deep in my family for so long.

im also very fortunate that my kids will never have to experience the struggle that i grew up with.

so YES, I LOVE MY JOB!!!

I feel like people pursue PE for these kind of exits. Even though these are 1 and a million ( PE > insanely lucrative Tech Portco) 

Interesting topic that can be talked about for days. I have worked at an EB and MM PE shop. Here is the short and sweet answer: Do you enjoy higher transaction velocity with generally less complex modelling and more process based work at the junior / VP level that gradually transforms into a salesy job from VP to MD/Partner (Investment Banking in case you are a nubie), or would you prefer overly detailed modelling with a strong emphasis on portfolio management and less broad transaction exposure on deals but enhanced depth when working on execution (PE route)?

PE typically includes a shit ton of boring portfolio work and admin tasks (teams are leaner and normally you don't have the same level of support so normally you are doing a lot without assistance), increased responsibility, complex modelling that usually is BS but needs to be done for optics, and sifting through investment proposals whether proprietary (not ideal from my experience as you end up doing what bankers would normally do in an auction or sale process) or auction/advisory based that both ultimately don't go anywhere. You definitely sharpen your investing mindset but like banking it becomes repetitive after the 50th opportunity you spent a lot of time digging through. Comp could go either way, the spread has narrowed a lot or in some places reversed or never overtook IB on the average. Portco work is not as fun as it may seem, I don't think this aspect of the work is really foreseen and tends to underwhelm people. 

IB you will do a lot of pointless work too like PE but generally not as detailed. Presentations are more artsy due to the sales nature of the business so expect sexier decks for the old timers to drool over and maybe read 5-10% of. Support if working at a decent bank/shop is a lot better from my observations and experience. Mumbai is great, never underestimate those guys, I really missed them after my banking stint. When they say "greater responsibility" this unfortunate task addition is included. You get higher deal flow exposure and the types of deals are more diverse (IPO, reverse merger, M&A, etc) through the year on average. You will pitch dumb ideas and great ideas that will require mental/bodily damage at some point in your career. Pitching can be fun though, as it requires a strategic mind to position the company so there is a learning curve in it as well. Kinda similar to going to IC in PE (loose comparison but still relevant). 

I could keep typing but the goal of this was to hopefully enlighten some aspects of PE (main topic) and IB (always benchmarked against and assumed worse than PE). Conclusion: If you like a more client-oriented, salesy career path then IB will most likely be better for you. If super analytical and you get hard over modelling in addition to spending copious amounts of time with your portcos, then head down the PE route. Think carefully, don't follow the herd!

i'm a VP and I do enjoy my job. I find the work interesting, I like the people that I work with, feel like I have a big impact, and get paid really great. I work from like 8:30am to 6-7pm mosts days and rarely work on weekends. sometimes when i'm on a live deal it can get intense and feel like banking where you pretty much don't have time to do anything except work including weekends, but that will only last for a couple of months at most and then I can go back to chilling. so yeah idk, whats not to like?