go for complicated deal as a brand new associate
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Go for it, take the risk, and step up to the occasion. If good SR ASO or VP that wants to mentor on the deal then even better. Going to be a challenging period to get quality deals done / meaningful PortCo work in the near future given macro environment and overall competitiveness for processes and you will be in a defensive position from a career perspective if you don't get solid reps in your 2 years as an Associate.
The deal might be complicated, but the work is fundamentally the same across deals. So long as you're comfortable asking questions while also trying to find precedent materials to work off of (and maybe spend later nights than normal to get up to speed) you'll be fine. PE isn't rocket science and people really don't need to treat it a such lmao
BTW the principal probably veto'd you because they're lazy and don't wanna spend extra time mentoring, see if the VP is more willing
This sounds awesome. Go have some fun—don’t crumble. Pressure makes diamonds, fortune favors the bold, metal sharpens metal. I think if you see it as a learning opportunity it won’t matter how bad you do your energy alone will have added value. Good luck 👍🏼
Very bad idea. You’ve already been told no. If it goes well you’ll have made the principal look a bit dumb (who’ll have discussed with the Partner) and you look cocky. If it goes wrong you look doubly cocky and incompetent (and the VP will look stupid too). Plus plenty of other Associates who have been waiting their turn much longer will want to do it to try to get their promo etc. and you might piss them off too. Lots of downside, very little upside — nothing to win by pushing it. Head down for now is the only way unless they bring it up again pro-actively.
Unfortunately, a great way to have a short career in this business is to stick your neck out and fail. I would go with the flow and learn as much as you can at a sustainable pace. Succeeding in PE is partially withstanding the natural attrition and learning to become an independent thinker.
I closed 3 deals as an Associate, and it didn’t make my life that much better vs peers who did just one.
You day you want to close as many deals as possible as an Associate. Why?
The actual closing is closing mostly lawyers. All the PE work is done by the time you sign the purchase agreement, and most of the work is really already done by the time you go to LOI and have IC approval.
Keep your head down, don’t be too ambitious, and learn how to think critically by taking each CIM review as seriously as a live deal.
You need to set yourself up to succeed especially as compared to your peers. Don’t give them a reason to put you in the not-getting-promoted bucket by failing so quickly.
Agree wholeheartedly with this. OP should keep their head down.
Ran into a similar situation as an A0 and found that engaging critically with the IC materials (particularly the follow-up questions and responses to same) helped me hit the ground running when I was first staffed on a live and exclusive deal. If the VP has time and OP has high EQ, OP could try to grab 10-15 minutes with VP after going through previous materials to ask questions and hopefully develop a little bit from the VP's learnings. This would show humility and initiative, while also being low-stakes for OP.
very sage advice...dont bite off more than you can chew. i personally take the approach of never ask for a staffing but also being proactive....the work will find you trust me
Ignore my title, currently a VP at a MF/ UMM
I disagree with the other user. The best way to make your mark is to over promise and then overdeliver.
My first PE deal was a complex carve out and I had little modelling expertise (ex consultant). I outperformed hugely and set the tone for me to get promoted to VP early. It gave me a rep in my firm I would not have had otherwise.
are you at advent/bain? would be interested to hear the transition
What weird kind of staffing model is this where you can "volunteer" for something you've heard via scuttlebutt? Forget the technical experience, I would look down upon you for being a new Associate who was already playing dick-measuring competition seeing what everyone was staffed on (in a way that's inorganic enough that you already know what midlevel chatter is about denying you the staffing) instead of focusing on the work before you. The only thing worse than a gossip is a striving gossip.
Lol. Why this tone. I didn’t gossip. VP and Sr asso literally told me about this new deal during lunch break without me asking anything. Literally told me EVERYTHING I wrote in the post, including how she had already talked to principal about wanting to staff me on this deal but principal refused and for what reason. AND that she wanted me to ask principal again so she’s not just the only person advocating for this.
There’s no need to gossip to find out what deals people are on/what mid levels are thinking/why someone is staffed on a deal. At my firm things are very transparent and communication very fast. Just because your firm have an obscure and rigid staffing model doesn’t mean people can’t do thing another way at other places. Nasty comment, especially with this lousy tone and presumptuousness of yours.
Setting aside everything else, you probably should focus on figuring out how to communicate key points succinctly because it is a critical skill at all stages of your career. The story that came across in your original post sounds very different than the facts in this post, and completely change what advice someone might give. In the first post you sounded like you were randomly finding out about a deal and trying to push yourself on it. Now it sounds like you were basically prodded by the VP to join the team. You see how those are different situations right?
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