Is on-cycle PE recruiting worth it this early?
On-cycle PE starts td/tm. Will I miss out if I hold out for off-cycle? Don't think I'm ready to interview yet
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Same and not sure how to proceed
In the same boat. Tough decision.
Rising An2 here and in the last 2 months, I’ve gotten emails about Apollo, SLP, GA, TPG, and EQT continuing to recruit for summer 2024. Back in January, I was getting emails about the infamous Summer 2024 on-cycle starter, Apax, recruiting still as well. If on-cycle were to kick off tonight, I’d be shocked if more than 1 fund actually filled all their seats for summer 2025 this evening.
I really don’t think you’d be missing out on anything by not participating. Literally only BX/KKR tend to fill their spots night 1, and BX didn’t even participate in the first week of on cycle last year…
Don’t go strike out with a dozen funds in week 1 of on cycle if you’re not prepped. There will be opportunities to interview with them in the coming weeks and months.
For instance, I had TPG ask me to interview during on cycle, and I continue to get monthly emails from HSP and Gold Coast asking whether I’m interested in interviewing (literally just got one from HSP last week)…
Have seen non-MF caliber people get MF jobs on-cycle in recent years. The bar is comparatively lower on-cycle. If you can hold your ground, I suggest going ahead.
Very true from my experience. These firms are playing themselves
Could one start interviewing at 1 or 2 shops and then pull out of the entire process if needed? Does this look bad on the candidate for wasting time?
The earlier on-cycle gets, the less spots are actually filled during on-cycle. Two things happen: (i) less firms go in the first wave because nobody actually wants to go this early and (ii) the firms that do go this early end up filling up less of their spots. We talked to our headhunters and they had no idea that anyone was going to go this early so they haven't even started setting up conversations yet. (They are clueless though so what can you expect...)
I've talked to a ton of other friends at MF / UMM and most people are going to wait until a more reasonable wave.
You'll have a much better experience all around if you spend more time figuring out what you want to do before jumping into this shitshow of an on-cycle recruiting process. Especially given so many firms are starting to recorrect and recruit more people after a year+ of experience.
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