Interested in the space, but have heard the likes of Blackstone/GIP/Stonepeak are super stiff. If the hours are longer everywhere, might as well be somewhere that's a bit more relaxed.
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Funds HQed or founded in Europe tend to be more chill. There are a lot of them with US offices
Pension-esque funds with infra tend to be chiller
Anyone know much about Basalt?
interviewed there, pretty nice ppl but seems to be sweaty. The principal I interviewed before exited the firm months after that, which says something.
Curious - how did you get this impression? What were the main tells? I feel like a Principal would be hard pressed to leave just because a fund is sweaty (but perhaps I’m wrong).
How's EQT?
No such thing
For the most part, 99% of infra roles are sweaty, whether it’s pe, banking, Corp dev or Corp strategy at a developer/utility, anything really. No such thing as laid back infra jobs. Even if they say it’s laid back at a firm, they’re lying
but does sweaty = hardo/stiff/formal culture? I get that the sector is intensive hours-wise but are there firms with less of a Apollo/GIP stiffness and a less finance bro-ey culture?
Agree, it really should not need to be that way and I’m still looking for an infra fund that can provide a good culture and not compromise on the experience gained. From speaking with friends, seems GIP has managed to create a brutally stiff culture where juniors are not only worked to the bone but also not respected for their time or contributions and therefore treated as expendable by their deal teams.
I work with all the top firms in the space and have interviewed at a few... if you're looking for a less hardo culture I would look outside of infra or maybe at guys who lean more towards renewables than core infra and have a more startup type culture. All the regular infra players are incredibly rigid/hardo, you'll find many of these also have very high turnover with many people leaving PE entirely - both of which are unusual for PE - but just shows how rough it is to work in the space.
Would core+ / value add be likely to have better culture? Care to drop any names?
Anyone have thoughts on iCON?
As someone in infra PE, I’d say pensions and SWFs are the best option. Can still be hit or miss but better chance of finding a balanced / chiller situation
What about funds that lean toward growth equity/VC in the infra space? Particularly asking about more of the renewables world since there are so many startups in renewable infra lately
I work at a pension-esque solidly MM infra shop. People are correct that it's simply a lot of work and really getting into the weeds on transactions. But the culture of my team is so incredibly healthy. I know some people on pension infra teams and it's kinda similar to my experience.
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