MF/Firms with any semblance of WLB
Are there any mega funds with any notion of WLB or is it all totally cooked. Ideally would like to go like 50-70 a week.
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yeah there are a few sector groups within MFs that work 50-70 hours a week, and usually the European ones work less than the American ones
Any groups you can name here?
Prove me wrong, but I don't think this unicorn profile exists. PE is inherently a demanding job, particularly at the associate level. If you're working 50-70 hours only, only a few options come to mind (all long-term negative):
The only "perfect" combination that I can think of is:
Obviously these lists are somewhat facetious, but my point is, this isn't a WLB-friendly job, particularly at junior levels at a healthy firm.
Hopefully you can use my examples above to try to find opportunities that are 'better' on the WLB spectrum but also recognize that most candidates are lucky to find a single seat in PE, let alone getting to heavily reverse diligence the opportunit(ies) presented.
Yeah this is pretty spot on
+1 on this, superb response. Thanks for taking the time to type out..
Good analysis, but isn’t most of what we do at the VP and under level basically BS anyway?
On deals, once you have an investment thesis, the real value comes from the third-party work—FDD, QOE, market studies, legal. We still have to package it all for IC, but the endless diligence cuts and modeling don’t really add much. The level of detail in IC packs is borderline absurd.
Same thing with portcos. I spend so much time cranking out random FP&A cuts that don’t actually matter.
This job could be simple and even enjoyable, but people in this industry seem determined to make it harder than it has to be. And I think it comes from the mindset you've laid out, where ppl think more work = better returns
It's because you don't really know if an investment is a success for several years post-investment. You need to spend 5-years doing the following: 30% willing and working the deal into a success and 70% covering your ass and playing politics.
If you’re targeting 50-70 hour weeks for all 52 weeks of the year, it either doesn’t exist or is not a good seat most likely.
What is more realistic is to look for places where when you’re not on a live deal sprint you’re working like 45 - 60 hour weeks, to balance out the times you’re in the thick of a live deal where you’re almost all of you’re waking hours are spent working.
The other WLB related things or look for are flexibility (ie even if I have to work late into the night, do I have the flexibility to go home at 6 and do it from home / do I have the flexibility to go to the gym for an hour before getting back to work).
Also what do weekends look like when not on a live deal.
TLDR: if you’re targeting a place where the hours are always 50-70, you’re doing not wrong. The goal is to find a place with amazing WLB when not on a live deal and then average in 3-5 deal sprints per year
I had what I consider a very good associate WLB at a MF and my hours (below). So is it possible? Yes, but you're looking closer to the 60-70 hour range and not the 50-60 hour range.
Non-Deal time:
M-Th: 9am - 11pm; Fri: 9am - 7pm; Weekend - 2-4 hours -> 70-ish hours typically
When deal time came this would easily become 90-100 for 2-3 weeks straight (this would happen probably once a quarter)
I agree with this ballpark. Mine was similar with probably a bit more weekend work, at least at the beginning when I was former consultant ramping.
Quick math suggests blended 80 hours.
9a - 11pm when not on live deal was standard M- Th?
I was more like 8a-10p...so yeah. Keeping in mind, this was like late 2010s when market was ripping, so while I wasn't on post-LOI deals, I could easily be looking at 10+ pre-IOI deals.
Bain cap
I work like 50 hours a week at UMM fund
Could you give us some details about industry focus or what makes it so chill without doxing?
Good portco, efficient people
Have friends at BDT who have decent WLB. Still grind 90+ hours on deal sprints but culture is pretty good outside of that and can get away with leaving at like 7 if you’re reasonably responsive from home. Flipside is the firm is pretty saturated and path to promotion is unclear (even more than other UMM firms) and you’ll have to split your time doing advisory work / IC approach means you’ll have fewer direct investing reps.
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