PE recruiting with dyed hair?
Curious on thoughts here - currently job searching, but I have frosted tips that are blond while my natural hair color is dark brown.
Going for Sr. Assoc/VP roles, I have a very solid background and have been breezing through 1st and 2nd rounds (virtually) and have been invited to a few in person final rounds.
is the hair gonna be a red flag? On one hand I get it’s finance so people are overall more hardo, but on the other hand it’s not like it’s bright pink (blond is…a normal color), and it’s 2024 lol. In an ideal world the resume, my technical proficiency and interview performance should speak for itself, but curious on y’all’s thoughts on if this is really a deal breaker (nobody’s mentioned it so far, but who knows what they say behind closed doors).
Just feeling overall tired of the idea of bending over backwards just to not stand out (the alternative is to cut/dye it back, and then if I land something dye it back) - been doing it for 4+ years and am pretty good at the job…
At my firm (very buttoned up / old school), this would be 100% fine assuming you are a woman. If you are a man, however, I would recommend a more conservative hairstyle.
Care to post an example pic?
If you’re a guy then no, frosted tips are generally not an acceptable hair style in PE. I can’t imagine someone at my firm rocking frosted tips, even if it’s tastefully done and looks good (in my opinion it can look really good). I think it’s a kind of stupid industry standard, but at the end of the day these ARE client-facing roles, and portraying a certain image is important
How is PE client-facing…
Pretty sure he meant "face to face with people outside the firm"
Managing LPs money
Are you serious? You are literally managing someone else’s money. Especially once you reach VP (and higher) like OP is talking about, your role starts to become more and more geared towards LPs. LPs are your clients.
You can get away with highlights or lowlights (as long as it looks like your natural hair color, obviously if you have highlights or lowlights as an indian/asian/arab kid who can't naturally have that hair color), definitely not frosted tips, you would look like guy fieri
I got through PE recruiting with 10 inch plus samurai lax flow. No one said a word. Let it ride king
Imo it’s not worth the risk but depends on how you personally weight personal expression vs career stuff. No right answer imo since it differs for each person but I think you would def be hurting your chances at some firms. It’s fine to say you’d never want to work at those firms anyways but still worth being clear to yourself about the trade off you might be making.
Put candidly, most PE shops are conservative and run by guys in their 40s/50s/60s+. Gen-Z is already being typecasted (rightly or wrongly) as lazy, entitled, etc.. Don't give them a reason to take a dislike to you.
If you have to ask the question, you're acknowledging that there is a >0% chance you're disadvantaging yourself.
You need to decide if you care about your hair enough to make that trade-off. Agree with the above that if you feel strongly enough, perhaps it's a self-selection tool to finding the right firm, but I know plenty of likeable firms that have dismissed candidates for pettier things, so it's not a slam dunk correlation.
OP here: thanks for the feedback - prob gonna dye it back then.
Figured 4 years as a top IB/PE performer could cover it, but I guess it’s not worth taking any chances. Hoping I can help loosen finance culture when I’m older.
Don't do it man. I recruited into a MF with four piercings and a med-length fringe. Culture has def eased up a bit.
Strongly depends on the firm. This is not a good general rule. At my MF, that would not be acceptable and you probably wouldn’t have gotten hired.
Got my offer with short pink hair, septum piercing, ear gauges, and face tattoos. The trick is to just keep calling them racist until they give in.
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