What exactly does the day-to-day portco work for PE associates/VPs/etc. at MM funds actually look like? I am joining a fund where I will be involved both with investing and portfolio company management.
The fund has a handful of operating partners and one of the associates focuses more on operations than investing. As a standard/investing-focused associate, what kind of portco to work should I expect?
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FP&A / random ad-hoc returns analyses / helping w external presentations / classic junior level admin tasks. Nothing glamorous.
I struggle to understand how most MM PE shops keep their associates super busy if they are not doing a ton of investing and this is all they do for portco work - any insight on this?
Multiply weekly calls w/ functional leadership / add-on opportunities / random science experiments * the number of portcos you’re staffed on (3-4 at my firm). Add all the process dynamics / deliverables required for a live deal and you’re looking at 80+ hour weeks.
Not doing any portco work is a terrible associate experience for anyone who wants to stay in PE, as it is where you learn a lot of different skills and ways to think about a business that are relevant at the VP level than just the investment work. With that being said at most firms across levels, the assoicates do some level of portco work for various portcos whether that be adhoc tasks or add-on related workflows (which at some firms across fund sizes can be a large chunk of your experience). I was at a MF as an associate where I did very little port-co work and think was much less developed as a VP than those that were promoted internally at my operationally-focused UMM. Think port-co work can be a really great learning experience especially at the associate / senior assoicate level, even if far more tedious.
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