Is the Grass Greener on the Buyside?
Ignore title - incoming AN1 at BB interested in buyout or growth. Thinking about life post analyst stint and it seems like the role of an Associate at the larger funds are no different than an analyst on the sell-side. When it seems like comp isn’t considerably better as a junior/mid-level and at least I have a grunt man under me if I stayed in banking, is the buyside truly better? Sure, it serves as a path to other exit opps (HF, SWF, Operator) and you can drop shitco DD requests on the sell-side guys, but is that truly it?
Short answer: I don’t know a single person who goes to PE and wants to go back to IB but I know a lot of people in IB that want to go to PE and can’t.
For similar work, you make more money, work less, have better perks and the work is naturally more interesting.
Actually there are a good amount of buyside associates who realized that the much more stressful work, worse culture and political dynamics are not worth it and go back to banking which actually pays better nowadays too.
Sure, they exist and you’re right I was being too short with my answer but there are definitely more people who don’t go back to IB vs. stay in PE or the buyside, if they can. In terms of pay, that’s just not true if you are at a good PE shop. For culture, definitely hit or miss but goes the same for banking too. My firm has great culture and I’d say even better than banking. People have kids and don’t want to spend timing grinding when they don’t need too and there’s enough professionals at every level to still have that same camaraderie.
No
Each is a good fit for different types of people
PE is good for people who want to spend endless hours performing analysis and modeling and doing deliverable preparation in order to always be right about qualitative and quantitative business considerations
Banking is good for people who want to prepare deliverables and do meetings in order to deliver strong sell side outcomes to clients
One other thing to add, PE is for people who are willing and happy to drink the koolaid while banking allows for more camaraderie / shooting the shit, since everyone knows what they are doing is not the most important thing in the universe.
Look up the number of posts on PE dying, PE firms winding down, the number of unemployed people right now in PE over the past year
There have been more than enough posts on this forum about it. No. It is not greener no matter what you're doing unless you're moving to the .01% of outcomes. It's just different.
It's greener because it's new and different. Comp and work hours aside (which in the grand scheme of things are ballpark similar in the median term), it's a new role that can be pretty exciting for the first 6 months until you realize you're doing the same shit over and over again. It's neither a good nor bad thing, and having sell-side and buy-side experience gives you a more holistic sense of what you might like more. That's it. No long-term career decisions are hinging on what you think you wanna do when you're 25.
Roles are very different on buyside v. sellside. What is similar though is the grind. People mistake the buyside as some promised land and are then shocked when they find out everyone here is even more hungry than in banking, which results in toxic / tough environments
yes but also no
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