Lateral IB Associate to PE

Not as hard and it definitely happens, but again, why would a PE want to negotiate w/ an ASO who's got higher cash comp and is more expensive than the fresh analyst? There's a reason it's typically an analyst->associate pipeline for PE. Just easier and less expensive to bring in younger people and train them. If you wanted to do PE, why would you overstay in IB? If you wanted to do A2A, why do you suddenly want to leave and do PE? All stuff that goes through our (PE hiring) mind when looking at a candidate, and if I have to spend longer than I want to thinking about your specific scenario before we've gone through cases/interviews it's easier to just toss the app all together because I'm looking through 1k+ applicants.

And yes there's the argument "well I don't care about the cash comp, I'm more focused on the long-term than short-term" - it's easy to say that. But who's to say it won't effect your motivation. If you're suddenly wanting to jump ship after committing to A2A after just a year, what makes me feel confident you will stick around for 2-3+ years here? It just adds extra layers of "will they/won't they/if they" to the hiring process a lot of folks just don't want to deal with.