Does start date matter for PE?

Starting soon as an analyst at an MBB in NY. Quite certain I will recruit for PE this fall when on-cycle recruiting happens, but since recruiting happens so early these days (last time was October) I feel pressured to pick an earlier start date than I would otherwise like. Does anyone who's recruited or been close to the process recently have thoughts on whether or not July vs August matters as a start date? Normally I'd think its a silly question but at this point it almost represents 50% additional experience by the time interviews roll around. Otherwise I would love a little extra time to travel and have some of the adventures that I've been putting off for several years.

Thanks for any help!

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You have more to talk about in your interviews, so it might. One month on the job I was doing menial consulting work; three months on the job I was owning workstreams; six months on the job I was delegating to someone who had yet to do a DD.

My advice: if you’re really keen on maximizing your odds, start early, join your PEG team, and crush it. It might not matter, since most of on cycle recruiting as MBB is just having the MBB name for foot in the door and passing the paper LBO (eg golden gate) but it could give you an edge. Your peers might be just ramping up on the fundamentals of primary research while you have built full market models and can articulate a deal thesis in terms of strategic rationale.

Counterpoint to my own advice: if you’re MBB, you’ll have no trouble getting a job, and breaks in the proverbial track do not come often, so fuck that, start in January and take six months off and have even more of an edge the following year. Seriously it’s just a job, go do some basic SE Asia travels and party hostels and all that, it’s good fun.

 

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