Haven't heard back from final round interview?

I finished up a final round interview with a fund a couple weeks ago and I thought I gave it my best and got along with the team pretty well. Did think I could've done a bit better in some aspects, but for the private equity recruiting process, it always seems like all candidates can do better.

It's been about 2 weeks since I've had my interviews and although it's been an awkward timing with Thanksgiving squeezed in the middle, I am wondering what the outcome is and if I am going to receive an offer or not. I followed up right before Thanksgiving, and my main contact at the fund who is an associate said that they are still finalizing decisions and will be in touch and that if they were to reach out to my senior bankers to get references they would give me a heads up first (I let them know that my group is not too receptive towards recruiting). What do you think I should do in this case?

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There are a few things potentially going on, but I think there are 2 likely scenarios and 1 not so likely scenario.

Likely Scenarios + They really are finalizing offer terms and getting final sign off from all of the senior people are the firm before they reach out to ask for your references + Someone else has the offer and is still in process accepting and so you are on hold until that person has finally accepted (then you may not get the offer) or declined (you are next in line for the offer)

Unlikely Scenaro + They are potentially deciding that they simply do not need to hire for the role anymore and are discussing shutting the process down

Really a crap shoot trying to figure out what is going on, continue recruiting other places and hopefully you hear back good news about this role soon.

 

Thank you for the optimism. I was thinking those scenarios as well....although it does seem that they're taking quite a bit of time to finalize an offer term if that were the case.

Do you think it's worth it to follow-up again given that it is post-holiday? Or do you think that comes off as annoying or desperate? If so, what do you think is the best way to follow-up / say in the email?

 

I had a PE firm contact my references and then put me on ICE for 3 weeks and then they bagged the 2 Associates for a Senior Associate. I followed up every 1-1.5 weeks just kindly checking in and reiterating my interest.

Don't say "I want to know now or else I'll be upset", just kindly say you want to know if there are any updates. Never heard of someone not getting an offer that was coming for being interested in the role.

 

Wow...that's brutal that they did that. This whole PE recruiting process is more painstaking that I expected. Been through ~7 interviews so far and only came away with 1 final round and 4 second round interviews....

Thanks for the wise advice! I'll follow-up with my associate contact who was coordinating the process initially and let her know that I wanted to follow-up and was wondering if there were any updates on the process post the thanksgiving holiday.

 

I would add to the likely scenario bucket too:

+They also may be putting you on ice while they interview other candidates.

Nothing you can do now but wait, wouldn't get too caught up with this stuff. Out of your control, just keep trucking along with recruiting. To be frank, that fact that it's been this long is likely not a positive sign but you never know.

Good luck my G.

"My name's Ralph Cox, and I'm from where ever's not gonna get me hit"
 

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