Maybe PE isn't for me.

I just wanna know how these interviews are going knowing where most kids are at. Whatre they even asking 😂😂. Saw on another thread someone left an interview asking “What’s IRR?”

There are plenty of other PE firms besides MFs man...

I’m right with you. I just want to enjoy life for a little bit longer, and if chilling for one summer is gonna “wreck” my career then maybe this isn’t worth it

I totally get how you're feeling. It’s tough to stay motivated when it feels like the grind never ends. High finance isn't for everyone, and there's no shame in wanting to enjoy life more. Do what feels right for you. Good luck with whatever you decide, and take care of yourself!

I said this on another thread but dropping it here for OP: 

TL;DR, you’re fine. enjoy your life and worry about this when you are at your desk

Second year analyst here. I remember when I was at training and superday happened right after training. I am transitioning from banking to PE, so I think I’m qualified to give some input here. I got an offer during off-cycle.

Don’t forget the fact that you are not even an analyst yet. Most of you don’t even know what banking is and what this job is. You might even hate it. Yea, it sucks if you don’t hear from the biggest PE firms that are kicking off but I strongly suggest everyone to take some time to truly understand what kind of investing they want to do while they study LBOs. 

No, you’re not screwed if you don’t hear from firms right now. But it will be difficult. I won’t hide it from you that it’s going to suck, you’re going to have to constantly prep hoping the firms on your prioritized list will kick off. But that’s the beauty of PE recruiting. It’s very competitive and if you really find it interesting, you will be motivated to continue pushing through. For the folks that are interviewing and getting offers right now, congrats. This is a huge achievement but please go into banking with the right mindset to learn as much as you can and please please please be kind to those that have not had the luck you had. 

Lastly, I will re-emphasize that this will suck. But it will be worth it and patience is truly a virtue. There are great firms like Silver Lake, TA, and others that will go later (i.e. Advent, TA, and some other great shops looked for candidates 3 weeks ago for 2024 start). Also, you can do a lot worse than being at your current bank if you go to a weird shop, be careful.

Anyway, good luck. For the rare chance the recruiters are reading this, screw you.

Yea dude, maybe it isn't, and that's fine. I'm a year in to the IB gig and have a PE job lined up and the reality is pretty brutal. You have to fight to maintain your physical fitness, social life, and sleep. It's an emotionally and physically taxing job, my relationships with my parents and siblings and friends have taken a toll because I can't make time for them often and when I do I'm usually still stressed out. If you don't stand up for yourself you will end up missing meals, sleep deprived, etc. There's a lot of jobs out there that will pay a pretty nice salary without being this demanding. 

Breathe. There’s a lot of buyside jobs out there that invest across strategies. Majority PE, growth (minority) PE, late stage VC, mixed strategies at family offices, etc. I am an associate and I see associates and even sometimes VPs exit to the buyside across a mixed range of roles in the above list. Sometimes those people do a year or two there and then go to a larger fund with a more established track record. Your career is a marathon not a sprint. You’re like 21. You’re in a great spot, with a great job you are starting soon. You will do great.

Lol just do off cycle recruiting bro, not the end of the world

Look at it as a practice round. There’ll be numerous opportunities to get into the industry. You can only gain from this experience and grow professionally, even if you don’t get the job. Every action is a step in the ladder until you get there.

Not all funds participate in on-cycle anymore because some started realizing long ago that the quality of candidates the process offers is just not there. Most of the firms that participate in on cycle (baring a few that get FOMOed into it) are the sweatshops funds I would advise you to avoid anyway. Take this early on cycle as a blessing - now you know what firms to avoid

Adding in some wisdom from some senior people I've been fortunate enough to connect with + learn from:

The single most important* variable to maximize if you're interested in building long-term wealth in this industry is longevity. The person who bounces around and eventually winds up making principal/partner at a mid-tier shop in Chicago/Boston/Austin or whatever will wind up making multiples of the person who goes from EB/top BB --> MF but burns out at 27 and leaves the industry. I know on-cycle often feels like the be-all end-all from the POV of us 22 y/o's, but honestly, probably the worst thing you can do for your long-term career is blindly commit yourself to 2-3 years of a job that winds up making you want to kill yourself (and if you're a normal person like your post suggests, the odds that MF PE will be soul-crushing is pretty high!).

At this point IMO on-cycle is for the megahardos who spent second semester of senior year + their time off over the summer prepping LBOs and have dreamed about working at KKR/APO since they were 15. If that's you, no hate, go for it. If not – if you're a normal, somewhat smart, somewhat well-adjusted kid who went into IB because you're a high achiever and you wanted to open doors for the future, but also wants to spend time with friends + family before starting the IB grind – do some PE technicals during training when you have nothing else going on, then take a few months on the job and figure out what it is you actually like to do. Even if that winds up being PE (even MF PE!) there will be plenty of opportunities for you off-cycle. Even if they're slightly less "prestigious" or whatever, your odds of burning out leaving the industry go down, and your odds of actually experiencing some sort of life satisfaction go way up.

* before people yell at me – single most important variable holding all else equal. Yes the MF PE partner makes more than the LMM PE partner. But the delta between those two is smaller than the delta between the LMM PE partner and the burnt-out MF PE associate who quits and goes to corp dev because they hate the job they got themselves into.

Test

I understand where you are coming from, but I do want to provide some perspective. Today’s analysts were toddlers the last time we saw a real recession (I’m not counting Covid because it was an exogenous event). Most people in my analyst class coming out of a recession were just happy to have a job. Banks way under-hired, and we all got destroyed the first year. I’m not kidding when I say that I went 6 months before getting a single full day off including weekends. On Thanksgiving I got on a a 6am flight and spent a few hours with my family and was back in the office by early evening. The flip side is probably 30-40% of my class got great PE jobs (recruiting back then was the Fall after you had completed your first year). Plenty of middle bucket analysts in my class are now partners in PE. The analyst class after me was 3x the size so the second year was way better on hours, but getting in to PE was much tougher. My point is recruiting sounds like it is getting tougher, but if you do have a job, things will get better when the deal environment picks up. Your shop will hopefully hire more analysts to lighten your load in the second year and off-cycle PE jobs will open up. Most people don’t realize that you can make way more money in an up and coming MM/UMM fund with fundraising momentum than a public MF, but that is a conversation for another day. My suggestion would be to try it for a year and see how you like it with the caveat to always prioritize your health/mental health.