What is going on in PE recruiting? Is the talent identification process broken or have I just been unlucky? I’m a top analyst at a top EB in the top group at the firm and currently a second year. Most of my class are going to top PE shops. I consistently get emails from HH’s and only respond when it’s something actually interesting. Recently, most emails are for LMM $1B funds and occasionally something bigger. I get interviews at ~10% of firms I submit my resume to. The issue with my resume is I’m a non-target (but have great student org experience + finance/accounting/econ) and haven’t closed any deals (but have worked on multiple large deals that got cancelled in late stages). I’ve gotten two verbal offers, one MM from on-cycle and one LMM, but both came with last second re-trades on location/start date, etc. and I got cold feet so walked away from both. I’m above average in my class in terms of modeling and have never gotten dinged from a modeling interview. I’m also not awkward to talk to, although my social skills have definitely diminished over the last 2yrs in IB. What am I doing wrong? Do I just need to wait until I close a big deal? Do I need to start networking instead of just waiting for HH? I don’t have school alumni to serve up an offer on a silver platter for me. Is the hiring market so bad that I should just stay in IB another year? Do I need to ask my senior bankers to refer me? I’m also genuinely interested in investing and not just doing it for money/exit ops. Feel like the system is broken and I’m very frustrated.
EDIT: 10% is probably a bit conservative. Probably more like 25%, but feels like less because most opportunities I see aren’t interesting to me.
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Are the deals that you worked on but havn't closed on your resume? I'm also genuinely surprised with the 10% conversion rate given your background is pretty strong.
Partially. They may come back in the future, so I can’t say company names, etc.
Yeah i'm honestly not sure lol, if you are at a top EB at a top group, you should be getting interviews fairly easily. I came from an MM with 1 deal closed (although pretty sizable - ~$1.5bn) and have gotten interviews at most places barring MF's.
PE recruiting in Europe is quiet dead. Really tough to break in.
following this, having similar issues
does being a non-target screw you for pe recruiting? is it worth transferring?
I realized the system was broken when the HH kept inquiring about my SAT score.
Lol, 100%. Any firms that asked for my ACT/SAT I immediately lost interest in recruiting for. If they are basing hiring decisions (even partially) on an exam in which results are highly correlated to $$ + time spent on prep from 5+ years ago, how can they possibly be good investors?
I mean every large fund asks for this. So if you want an offer start going for the LMM
Do you know what their cutoff for sat is?
Bump
same boat dude might just wait for on cycle for 2026 at this point and do a 3rd year in banking, probably gonna kick off in like 3-4 months anyway
Are u based in the UK or US?
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