Does growth really have better WLB?
Current first year in what most would consider a top tech group and have come to the conclusion that the IB lifestyle is not for me. I don’t like constantly being on call and not having any free time to unplug / enjoy my life. I am also not a fan of the redundant and mind numbing work that blows up my weekends and prevents me from getting more than 6 hours of sleep a night. Based on conversations with people in the industry I’ve essentially ruled out going into buyout because it seems like lifestyle is very similar if not worse (despite perhaps more interesting work).
Is growth equity really that much better? Can anyone speak to what wlb is actually like and how it changes when deals are hot / how often this happens? Is the comp hit worth it compared to buyout? Do you see yourself being there past associate? General pros and cons of the job?
Thank you!
Interested as well
If the lifestyle is what you're after, curious if you've considered a role at a good pension? The top pensions will have direct investing teams and pay well enough with good WLB.
I have posted about the trade offs of the SWF/pension route recently - feel free to PM me with any questions. We are opportunistically recruiting associates if you want to explore after learning more.
Would you be open for a chat? Are you based in NY?
Any insight from the growth crowd?
Banked process = life is hell
Not banked process = life is not quite hell
Fund specific outliers exist
It’s interesting. I find banked processes easier because quality of info and they provide direction compared to non bank processes, not a huge difference in pain.
I’d take working to tighter deadlines vs. doing more bullshit cleaning data etc.
How are hours generally? I’m interested in the associate programs that have sourcing
In general I would expect sourcing-centric roles to have better WLB if only because the nature of longer-term + outward-facing work is more predictable -- no CEO is going to say "can we do an intro call at 10 PM tonight."
There's a high overall volume of work if you want to actually advance your career + get deals done but you should have reasonable discretion over when it gets done. Think of it like going to the gym... if you want to take a random given night off, probably no big deal. If you do that every night (i.e. treat it like a 9-5 job) your pipeline is going to suck.
Super helpful thanks. Personally really interested in sourcing and having a more outward facing role. Not a huge fan of being shoved in a closet and told to grind out models / pptx 16 hours a day without ever getting to see my work presented.
Out of those 60-70 hour weeks, how much time are you spending outreaching and having conversations versus modeling work?
Bump
VC is more likely to have significantly better WLB.
following
Definitely. Speaking from sourcing heavy Growth Equity. My thoughts:
Overall, I think you need to really be entrepreneurial and self directed to reap the WLB of growth equity. Definitely work more than venture but the comp as an associate versus venture justifies that and the *slight* max 10% discount from Buyout is nothing for substantially better WLB
how do associates go about sourcing? do they just look at conference lists, listen to podcasts, talk to industry experts? is it a free for all? are they just managing a list of companies already in firm's database?
All of the above. Most shops will have their own proprietary engine and Associates will add rather than leverage an existing list.
Typically lots of freedom on how to go about it: cold outreach, travel to a conference, trade show etc. These firms typically have flexible budgets and are very supportive for you to do whatever you need to get good targets.
are promotion cycles in growth equity (associate to VP) much harder since your value is mostly emphasized on your sourcing abilities since this is a key thatll differentiate amongst the juniors?
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