Is PE recruiting easy at consulting friendly firms?

There's a thread on r/consulting with a MBB analyst who recently accepted an UMM offer.

He said he didn't really have any finance knowledge or background, just worked on a few due diligences, and did the following to study:

"Maybe 2 hours to learn a paper LBO and 1 hour to understand the inputs to it (depreciation WC etc.)

Didn’t study much else, just really knew the deals I worked on very well..

Started prep the weekend before maybe spent 5ish hours total"

Is this little preparation typical for consulting friendly PE funds? I know they do case interviews and stuff too which is different, but I imagine if you're at MBB, that part won't be an issue at all either.

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It's easy from a technical side. You don't have to know how to model, or necessarily even know what a PIK loan to get an offer at some of the top consultant friendly funds. That being said, these funds are looking for the instinct to dissect and articulate a business' value levers and how that translates to a successful deal. The differentiator is getting to those second-level insights. You would be surprised at some of the answers I've heard from bankers, who were absolute model crushers, when asked to present a thesis on a business. I've heard "this is a good business because historical revenue growth is strong, margins have gone up, and it has reduced capex" which no qualified consultant candidate would ever say.  

 

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