PE WLB Expectations

It is extremely hard and I am personally awful at multitasking, especially when I am accountable for the information on the call.

I think one of the most important thing you can start to do is learning how to prioritize and organize yourself (“getting things done” by David Allen has some good tips on this particularly around inbox organization). I personally organized my inbox based on the stage a deal was in (NDA, IOI, LOI, Purchase Agreement, Dead) and created a sub folder for each specific deal (eg: project onyx) that I moved through each of those categories to keep track of what was on my plate. i created lots of reminders on my calendar for when IOI deadlines were so I knew when to follow up with my team if I hadn’t heard any feedback. 

I also tried to push as much work as possible to my Saturday / Sunday and basically just accepted that I would work the entire day every Sunday and at least the morning on Saturday on deliverables or tasks that need uninterrupted time - things like modeling or reviewing CIMs / NDAs (which honestly get easier and faster with time once you realize what your firm actually gives a shit about) or Portco “science projects” that partners love to ask you to do.

Jira, the project management tool, is also pretty helpful I’ve found in getting organized with what I need to do - it’s basically a to do list on steroids. The more ahead you can get on certain things, the less likely you are to end up in a jam that results in an all nighter, and ultimately survival and longevity in any finance job is about minimizing your sleep deprivation so you have the energy to keep trudging ahead - better to go home every night at 11 consistently than to go home at 4 or 5 AM one night every week. 
 

Ultimately though there is no way to avoid the fact that you will not actually start doing your actual job until 5-6 PM at the earliest and you probably won’t leave until much later. Given that, sometimes it’s better to just focus on paying attention to the call (so you actually learn / know what is going on) and accepting that you will have to work really late every day. The faster you get up to speed on your firm’s investment philosophy and the steps in the deal process, the quicker you will be able to figure out what is actually urgent and what can be put off to the weekend. One of my friends made it to partner at a very solid firm at 32 and he attributes it entirely to firmly committing to working a full day (9 AM - 10/11 PM) every single day of the week (including weekends) and avoiding all nighters / super late nights that crush your health and energy levels as much as possible - whether this is necessary or appealing or worth the sacrifice is your choice, I’m just sharing the paradigm in which he lived his life. 
 

Despite my title, I got out of PE after 2 years and went to corporate. There was a similar dynamic where you’re on calls all day long (and often you actually have to contribute to all of them) but it is FAR more acceptable to cancel or skip calls if you have an urgent deliverable and it’s also acceptable to say you haven’t gotten to something because you were tied up on calls all day. This is true even for senior people who work a bit more in the evenings but that is mostly just responding to emails vs working on deliverables. I personally am much happier now that I can reliably enforce boundaries, which is something you will never be able to do at any level in PE. But that’s just me and what you decide to do after PE is your choice.