Hi,
I am a former MBB consultant going to a top 10 MBA (thinking M7 / LBS/INSEAD). I will be recruiting for MFs in Europe. Assuming I make it, how brutal is the MF lifestyle (E.g. vs consulting)? How better does it get over time?
I have read a few posts but haven't found much of a comparison with MBB consulting in Europe
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I’m assuming you’re talking about the PE arm of MFs.
MFs are as standardised as it gets when it comes to culture and work-life balance throughout global offices. Expect a sweaty and generally toxic environment with longer hours than consulting.
Of course there are teams with relatively better WLB, but those would be the exception rather than the norm. You can’t really know 100% going on no matter how much networking and “due diligence” you do on the shop.
Best of luck with recruitment.
Equally brutal everywhere - people at my fund work as much as in the US; some variability across teams. Doesn’t get better until principal and I would say by then you might reduce work hours but you probably have more stress & spend so much time traveling that you are equally exhausted.
Why didn't you want to stay in MBB? Seems like the dream (to me), as a BB IB Analyst, over PE.
MF Analyst here at an European MF: European funds except CVC have a good WLB overall
What european MF hires analysts in london?? Cant think of any
Then you dont know the European PE industry. In deal phases: work hours = IB. Non-deal phases: 9/10/11pm but this depends on your principals and culture. We get pushed out of office in the evening after crunchy times to recover. We do the biggest deals in European
MF Associate here: all funds including CVC have shit WLB. This is like comparing the tallest midget, all of them suck. 70+ hours and always on call is the bare minimum.
The only people content are the ones that genuinely enjoy the work and don't mind the volume, which is a small minority of people. And no, it doesn't get better with seniority.
I would even say it get worse as you climb the latter. Traveling is insane at principal level
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