I've heard on this forum that bank/group is often overrated for PE placements and that alot of the time it comes down to candidate profile. Coming from a semi-target with a 3.9 GPA and 1600 SAT can I place into a MF from places that don't traditionally feed into top buyside roles? Ex: Strong group at UBS, middle group at Barclays/BofA, Guggenheim, etc.
Thanks.
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It is possible but probably a bit less likely. Middle group at Barclays/BofA (maybe even Guggenheim) would generally be better than strong group at UBS. Analysts in strong groups at banks like GS/MS will, on average, get a greater number of high quality looks.
Your stats should help you but won't carry you if you flub the HH meetings. Look to crush those and roll with the punches.
I came into this battle expecting no looks at all, I come from a non-target and I'm at a practically unknown/overlooked group at a mid tier BB. It is nowhere near as bad as I thought it was gonna be, I get solid looks from firms tbh, no mega funds, but my "stats" are shittier than yours OP, trust me, people really DO overestimate the weight of the bank/group, it's not THAT bad. Obv it's super unlikely you pull Apollo from Wells Fargo in North Carolina, but you'd be very surprised to find you might be able to pull high quality UMM from a place like that.
Keeping this vague so I don’t doxx myself but I was in a similar position - everything except my bank (undergrad, GPA, test scores) was strong, and I’m at a very non-top bank that historically places very few at UMM/MF.
I found that basically every firm was open except the absolute top MFs - never heard from BX, KKR, or Apollo but had interview requests from basically all other firms I expressed interest in, including MFs and top UMMs.
I think headhunter meetings cannot be stressed enough. They may come into a meeting with a Wells Fargo kid expecting a worse candidate vs a GS kid, but if you can impress them and show you’d make a good candidate they will put you in front of their clients. They just want to get paid, they don’t care about your bank tier behind if you are hireable. Note that it also helps a ton if you have a good story for why your bank (for me I had a pretty compelling reason for why I “chose” my bank) it helps convince them you choose to be there not that you struck out in recruiting
Makes me feel so much better now about PE recruiting as a fellow nontarget
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