HIG capital - experience 2022?

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Extremely sweaty. Look at how many deals are done relative to find size. Cool strategy but requires sweat and blood. 

Work w them a ton at my bank. They chase basically every deal but win very few - on my last deal they had a full junior team spun up as soon as CIM went around and spent a ton of time building out their model, doing DD, etc and then they passed right before bids, and apparently this is super common for them. Seems like a tough junior experience

Ooof thanks guys

Also, on comp, can't speak to '22, but it has historically been light.

If you had no other option, would you take HIG Capital's offer and tough it out for a year or two? 

You will hate your life while you're there, but you will be respected anywhere else you go for the output you can manage. It's a MM Apollo in terms of how much you'll be ground into dust with a slightly better culture from what I understand having friends who have worked at both. If you're going to do it, do it in Miami. 

Why Miami? Thoughts on NY or SF or Boston offices?

If I did go there and I stayed one year and left, would it look bad? I know associate to associate lateraling isn't very common but curious to hear other thoughts

This is really helpful - thanks guys

Anyone else been getting blown up again and again by HIG recruiters? Didnt land my top choices for on-cycle so holding out for something better. Have just seen way too much bad stuff about HIG on here.

I have as well - def steering away based on this post and other research. Wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt because some had said they’ve improved, but it sounds like it’s the same old

Does HIG do off cycle given the difficulty retaining employees? I’m trying to find Miami pe firms

HIG has over 9 different equity funds across 5 offices that all work completely independent of each other...and 4 of those are new strategies in over past 4 years. Would be careful at generalizing culture or how they approach deals - Tech fund does not operate same as flagship LBO...or Infra...or MM, etc. Some groups definitely more sweaty than others, but do your DD on the specific office and fund. +50% of their VPs are Associate direct promotes and Principals and MDs are light given they spread them into new fund strategies to "seed" new strategies so bunch of upward mobility if you like it...and they like you. 

A bit racist I heard - from colleague who previously was employed there

A bit late to the party:

While I have not personally worked at HIG, I know those that have. Lots of burnout and known to churn through juniors. Consistently underbid on opportunities and rarely win. A buddy of mine came into HIG gun-ho about PE and had his sights set on that role since college. He burned out after 2 years and is now out of IB/PE almost completely (does IB/PE consulting work on the side). Though I have heard a lot of negatives about the company, you'll receive great exit ops and the resume boost. Not totally sure about comp, though I faintly recall hearing it's slightly below market (could be wrong). Depends on if you want to stomach poor WLB for the comp / potential exit ops down the road.

Side note, working in Miami is pretty cool and more firms are making the move down south. It's a great city for budding PE professionals as more and more companies make the move to Florida.

Based on friends' experiences, I would steer clear of HIG. The exception being is if you had no other solid PE options and wanted to use it as a way to pivot to a more desirable seat after a year or two.

• Hours, Facetime, Fake Deadlines, Unpleasant people, boiling the ocean, etc. are all worse than a toxic banking groupThe truly smart investors at the firm are now fund heads or sit in leadership/IC roles.

• Day to day you learn from "grinders" that are treated like bankers who bring in deals and not investment professionals (MDs included). This lends itself to ~8 IC related meetings with 30-70 page decks for each meeting in order to close a deal. Which can be very frustrating. Especially when it is killed after ~4 IC meetings (happens frequently)

• HIG's rep in retrading proceeds itself and the firm almost never wins processes with another reasonable bidder.

Have heard of cases where banks choose lower offers because they don't want to work with HIG

• BSchool placement is good, comp is slightly below market, and the brand carries weight in PE. It is just not a worthwhile trade based on the above if you have other options.

I didn't work there, but a very close connection of mine did. This is coming from his experience in the SF office. Monday-Thursdays(maybe Friday's as well) were basically 9-12am (more or less). Weekends usually consisted of minimal work, mostly chill but you have your moments as expected. He mentioned that his work got really stressful and that he hated his job lmao. In terms of b-school placement, he got accepted into H/S/W (all 3 btw). Yes, his GMAT was 750+ before you ask (Overrepresented, yes). No, he didn't take any classes or have any tutors, I'll give you the advice he gave me.... get the premium collection of off mba.com and go through it all. 

Very overblown / anecdotal opinions on here. HIG is a top quartile MM shop, name carries weight if you are a junior professional in PE. Yes it has a rep for no-nonsense culture and hard work, but there is a system they have that has generated 4x returns for 30 years. Top guys are impressive with quality credentials. Know several who have gone through the program and gotten a lot out of it, found it interesting.

Any info on their tech fund or overall tech strategy? I heard they were in market for $1-5bn fundraise and I’ve seen they made some tech hires over the past few years. Not sure how developed they are in this space, would welcome any insight.

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