So there's a TON out there on how to talk about IB experience, to GET a PE job-- all my googling and everything comes up short for how to talk about PE experience and not IB.
I'm currently an analyst at a PE fund, have gotten experience on all parts of the deal process, have closed deals, etc... wondering where / who I can go to find out how to talk about it. Everyone I know is still in IB, at my company who I don't want to tell, or has never closed deals though they work in PE
| +39 | Which PE firms are on the rise? | 53 | 4h | |
| +37 | Pro tips to exercising during ASO stint | 16 | 15h | |
| +19 | Is there any point learning a European language for PE recruiting (London) | 16 | 1d | |
| +17 | How to prepare to break into PE | 7 | 14h | |
| +16 | PE Secondary Advisory vs Model Internal Audit | 5 | 10h | |
| +14 | Current European Leveraged Financing Terms Superthread | 7 | 1d | |
| +13 | Quality of PE Associates | 7 | 2d | |
| +13 | Earn-out modeling between seller and buyer | 3 | 1d | |
| +13 | Technical question - Revenue sensitivity in LBO Model | 3 | 1d | |
| +12 | Cove Hill 2024 | 1 | 4d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
I also have no IB experience and never really figured out how to write my resume for that either haha-- plus, not sure I'm allowed to talk about the specifics of my deals but that's something I'll have to figure out the extent (I see often $$ instead of name for example)
Following
I would break it down into the different stages of the investment process —
Screening the investment, understanding the industry, company, initial diligence, building our projections, key investment highlights and risks
diligence process, working with advisors, any red flags that came out of diligence or risks uncovered and mitigants. Talk about the different diligence streams and which ones you got involved in. If you got involved in legal / structuring you can speak on that as well. How did the diligence findings impact your projections, valuation etc
post investment / approval. What were the strategic initiatives / key areas you wanted to drive within the business and how did you carry these out. How has the investment played out since you made it, what unforeseen challenges have there been or have has the investment thesis played out exactly as you imagined (unlikely).
Obviously each of these can be drawn out much further if required. I would focus on the areas you played the biggest part — likely drafting memo, driving the model / projections, handling 1-2 diligence workstreams as an analyst / associate.
haha perfect almost in terms of what work I’ve done, thanks for framing that this way. appreciate it
Having changed PE firms a couple times of times, I’ve been in a similar situation before. I would say that you shouldn’t expect to be asked a broad question such as “tell me about your deals.” Expect that the interviewer will ask very pointed questions, particularly around process. If they are familiar with the company or the industry, you can also get very specific questions such as: “How did you get comfortable with the risk of disintermediation given the company serves so few customers and suppliers?” Never once have I ever been asked in an interview to speak freely about any one of my investments.
That said, a good tactic will be to answer any interview question using specific examples to deals you’ve done. You can also pull from experience to answer things that you suspect are important for the role even if you haven’t been asked the question specifically. For example, if the question is: “Tell me about your firm’s approach to sourcing.” You can say: “The majority of our deal flow comes from investment banks, but we also source proprietary opportunities. When we bought Acme Manufacturing, they did not have an advisor. The result was that we had to conduct diligence using raw data and without a CIM. This is not uncommon for me. I therefore feel very confident that I’ll be able to effectively diligence both advised and unadvised companies.”
(Note, the above example is real and one I actually used in an interview)
Thank you, very interesting thoughts and helpful answers.
I am wondering how do you deal with confidentiality in this scenario? I imagine that for most deals, particularly in the LMM there is very little information in the public domain so presumably when answering these questions it will be difficult to stick to that?
Dolores aut velit vitae a. Ut tempora tempora qui doloremque corrupti repudiandae deserunt molestiae. Molestias temporibus voluptates nostrum error. Consequatur error quia est excepturi nesciunt veritatis dolores.
Quo ipsum ut quis. Rerum aut et at perferendis. Sint ea maiores consequatur doloremque quia. Quasi illum nulla porro odit necessitatibus.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...