Inferiority Complex in PE Recruiting
Anyone else feel a lot of inferiority when applying to PE firms? I didn't come from a particularly privileged background, faced a ton of adversity in my life and didn't go to a top target school. When I browse linkedin, it almost feels like a pipe dream for me to break into a 'top megafund' despite me being very competent amongst peers at my level (A2 at a top US BB and top team in London).
I am grinding a ton for PE, but at the back of my mind I have this feeling that 'the most prized things in this world aren't things that I get'.
Has anyone else felt this way and overcome it??
A few things:
Can't emphasize enough that MF PE is not one of "the most prized things in this world." Is it an amazing career? Absolutely. But it's not the end-all be-all for life, and there's no reason you can't have a great (in some cases better LT) career in the LMM-UMM. I'm sure someone snarky will comment and say "that's just because you couldn't make MF PE if you wanted to" and maybe they're right. The guy I work for now used to run one of the biggest groups at one of the MFs and chose to leave it after making it into those uber-coveted top ranks before they went public. Still invests money for the founders with better economics than he would've had as a partner of the firm, none of the white glove/stuffy corporate culture, all while not working 80hr+ weeks (most of the time) so I'm quite content with where I'm at.
Biggest thing you can do is stop continuously comparing yourself to others who clearly had a different career path. It took me a couple of years to quit doing that (and I still am guilty occasionally), but once it stopped being a constant thing quality of life went up noticeably.
Yeah bro — you just need to start ripping a compounded 69% more cigs a year and start investing in West Virginia low income rental properties. Then you will have the MF degenerates begging to work for you.
All income pre mid-30s unless you're killing it at some HF scoring 7/8-figure bonuses is a rounding error compared to the rest of your career. It's a fraction of the people who get into MF PE that actually have staying power, and for the firms that have gone public you will never see rising seniors have comparable career returns to the ones who took it public. The real money is made by starting your own fund and successfully scaling or joining a fund that's already on that path. Our profession by the virtue of how carry is structured is a marathon, not a sprint like in many HFs who have to worry about quarterly performance.
That's very impressive. How did you do it?
Thank you! It's not nearly as rare as this forum would have you think, but definitely relies a bit on right time right place. I went into corp dev out of undergrad covering the same sector as my current fund so I had relevant experience to speak to, in fact I had already spoken with several companies they were actively pursuing so a little bit of serendipity definitely played a part. I also had multiple LMM PE internships from college I could use point to my interest in the PE model in general (and I'm a nerd who follows PE news for our sector so I could have a 30+ min conversation on current events w/o much difficulty). I got interviews with 3-4 different funds in the LMM-MM size range towards the end of my 2nd year in corp dev and my current fund was by far the best fit (and the only one that didn't require me to move).
Speaking to the internships - Both experiences were unpaid which I think is something more people need to be open to doing (I had other ways to make money so it wasn't a dealbreaker for me). One I got through my school's recruiting portal and was super close to where I lived at the time so I spent several months there. The other I tracked down a founder through their post history on WSO to find their LinkedIn, reached out trying to learn about what they did, and asked if they could use a remote intern which I ended up doing for nearly a year.
A lot more diversity at MF PE than you think. Sure the majority of people came from top schools, but mix of socioeconomic backgrounds. It definitely lean towards upper class, but it differs. I’m at one of those firms from a non-target background and I went to public schools my whole life.
Maybe in the US, probably less true for Europe though. It’s changing at the entry level, but the senior levels of this industry are still dominated by guys from relatively upper class backgrounds who attended expensive schools. Quite a few people are from very distinguished old money / aristocratic family backgrounds as well. What OP will hopefully realise is that his ability to hustle into his current position despite his socioeconomic background already makes him a far more impressive individual than any of these people who were born with silver spoons.
Gotta get the fuck out of your head. You made it to a top BB group and survived your first years well enough — why would you fall back on any potential shortcomings you had before being a working professional for 3 years already? That’s just self inflicted insecurity.
Also MF isn’t the end all be all, but if you actually bust your ass with the same fervor you did to acquire your IB job — you’ll get a MF offer. You should look inward to see where your source of insecurity is coming from and why you’re inclined to put jobs/industry on some pedestal that can pass “judgement” on you. Get a spine and go get what you want — you already jumped the steepest hurdle, which is breaking into IB.
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