PE recruiting from MBB: How important is your rating?

Hi,

I"m a first year analyst at an MBB interested in PE. I was wondering how important your rating is in PE recruiting -- i haven't received my first evaluation yet but was curious -- obviously I try to give my best at my job, but  I'm not sure if striving for absolute top bucket is worth it. Also, do PE firms ask partners/etc for their opinions of various candidates? I'm a little worried that there might be one that doesn't have the best opinion of me... 

Thanks in advance!

6 Comments
 
 

i'm pretty sure middle bucket or better is fine. if your firm is like mine, it's pretty much impossible to hit top bucket in your first rating since you're judged against all analysts and not just your cohort. takes 1 year minimum to hit top bucket, and that's probably just the top 1% of analysts who get it that early, as opposed to at 18 months or 2 years. all this to say, obviously more than the top 1% of analysts recruit to PE, so aim for middle bucket (and an upwards trajectory in rating generally)

 

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