MF PE Analyst: Ask Anything

MF PE analyst, have some free time and this site has been immensely helpful for me in making key career decisions in college and learning about different career paths. Wanted to give back by providing any answers/insights into questions anyone may have about how I thought about internships, recruiting, etc throughout college. As a brief background about myself, I went to a HYPSW school and discovered an interest in banking/finance very very late sophomore year (1 month or 2 before recruiting). When I got started, I was getting denied after first-rounds with no-name firms. I then ramped up my prep, got my junior year summer internship at a top BB/EB, and then recruited for PE full-time. Lucky to have things go this way and want to give back.

 
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Good split btw LBO technicals and case questions. LBO technicals included paper LBO, returns drivers, etc and case questions around spaces in the industry, investments you liked/didn't like, deal experience questions. I thought about prepping through 1) developing a good investment framework 2) understanding the deals and rationale from my summer internship 3) researching and developing a thesis on portco's and potential investments I could pitch (take-private, PIPE, etc). Resources I used included Peak Frameworks and prior investing internship materials

 

Do you think you’re going to stay on or leave for a HF? How about others in your class?

 

We'll see, as I just started. Most ppl in the class stay until Associate/Sr. Associate, though a few leave to HF before then

 

In a similar position (HYPSW, very, very late interest in finance): beginning as late as you did, how did you approach networking & prep with only a month or two before recruiting officially began? Would love any insight you might have, thanks! 

 

For SA IB process:

Networking: aimed for 40 outreach emails per week (resulting in 15 coffee chats per week) at ~10-15 banks. In hindsight, spread myself too thin so I would be more targeted.

Technical prep: primarily focused on mastering the M&I course, spending ~15-20 hours/week on it, and supplementing that with mocks with older students. In total probably spent ~250 hours prepping for interviews and did ~100-150 coffee chats

 

Who are you targeting when sending those emails and how are you tailoring it?

Also from HYPSW and have sent several 40+ emails per week but I’m struggling to schedule even 2-3 calls per week. I’ve been told my emails, although a bit generic, look fine so looking for some advice here.

Also, how did you approach PE recruiting? Who did you cold email (or did you more cold apply)?

Thanks for doing this.

 

We'll see! Just started but hours are much better, work is much more dictated by yourself & involves critical thinking vs. being told what to do in banking. On the flip side, jury is still out whether the standard banking program would benefit me in the long run. Ultimately, I was in a sweatshop IB group over the summer (frequent 3-4am's most days of the week, yelling, little mentorship/camaraderie), and thought that even if there was a "formal" training program the health sacrifices weren't worth it. Even that being said, I felt that 5-10% of my time was actually spent learning key skills relevant to investing versus PPT formatting, pitching, random BD work, etc and I was wasting the other 80-90 hrs per week.

 

Do you have any regrets about not going into IB full time? How is the training you are getting? Do you feel behind your peers that had an SA at the MF (assuming your MF has an SA program? Thanks, very helpful thread, + SB

 

How did you go about developing your thoughts for an investment framework

 

Would you rather give the first 90% or last 10% of a bj?

 

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