Took it off a while ago and have thrown my hat into the ring on a few recruiter recommendations but gotten nowhere. Would this be the main reason why or just bad luck?
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Hey Associate 2 in PE - LBOs, what a lonely thread. I'm here since nobody responded ...so maybe one of these discussions will help:
More suggestions...
I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.
Bump
If you don’t have your GPA, it is assumed to be below a 3.0. This may not be the only factor hurting you, but every resume you send people will think, huh he didn’t do well in college. It’s similar to Pass/Failing a class
100% echo this. I'm recruiting lateral associates right now. If no GPA or test scores, we make the recruiters find out (and usually assume the worst while we wait).
How many YOE do you think a candidate should have before they can take their grades off?
If someone makes it through IB gauntlet and into PE, why would you care so much about GPA?
Based on on-cycle recruiting timelines for PE, PE firms are recruiting bankers who are literally 0-12 months into banking. Plenty of PE firms make mistakes when hiring A1s, because candidly, there are very few datapoints to assess the true potential of a brand new banker (and effectively recent college grad). If an associate is then looking to lateral, the bar is actually even higher, because well-performing PE associates are often less likely to leave their current shops (strong promotion track, good work begets more work and heavy staffing, etc.), so there's an adverse selection within the lateral pool and GPA becomes one more data point to assess candidacy (in addition to work experience, communication skills, references, reason for wanting to lateral, etc.).
I'm sure all firms are different, and it becomes increasingly less important with tenure. It also isn't a dealbreaker, but lower GPAs typically need to have a compelling story and/or ideally have strong test scores to offset concerns around intellectual horsepower.
I'd say it should remain until you're a senior associate/VP/post-MBA role.
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