Interview for Director Position in Growth PE unit at Canada’s Pension fund

Hello all,

I will have an interview for the Director/Principal position in the Growth PE unit at a Canada’s leading pension fund. I wonder if any of you may know about the interview format for this Director level? What level of technical modeling test should I expect?

A bit about my background: I have 15+ of working experience in Venture & Growth equity investment and corporate development role at a leading conglomerate in Asia. Now I am considering to transitioning myself to more on financial institution setting.

Thank you very much for your help!

6 Comments
 
Most Helpful

If you have 15+ years of experience and are applying for a Director level role it would be shocking if they made you do a technical modeling test. Your day to day should involve very little modeling. If they do make you do a test, I'd find that somewhat concerning as it would indicate that you're probably not at a true Director level or that's not how they intend to utilizie your skillset.

With all that being said, if I were you I'd focus much more on your investment track records. Brush up on all of your deals and make sure to know the details on all the important ones. I'd have examples of how you've built and managed your teams over the years, your investment philosophy, why your Asia focused skillset is good for the Canadian fund (have a thesis for why Asia is the next big hub for tech), talk about how you'd source deals, deals you've won over competitors due to your ability, etc etc. They're judging your ability to produce returns in the growth equity category, so you're going to want lots of evidence that you can.

This is all table stakes type of stuff. No offense, but if you've been in the industry for 15 years and don't know what you're going to get asked in your interview that's a little concerning. If anything, ping a former colleague or B scshool buddy who has ties to that region and try and get an intro to someone who actually works there. They could probably give you the best insight about how the fund has been operating and what you should focus on. Good Luck.

 

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