Preparing for Associate Role?
Hi all-
I'm finishing up my second year in IB and preparing to start at a PE shop in a couple months. Given general workflow has slowed down right now, I've been thinking more about what I can do with my free time to best prepare for my next job.
I'm in a BB coverage group where I haven't had a lot of live deal experience / responsibility, and am feeling a little anxious about my abilities to perform at my next job (especially with a lot of the incoming class coming from EBs or M&A groups). Does anyone have any insights into things that would be helpful to work on now (e.g. practicing certain types of analysis), or anything they wish they knew before they started their PE associate roles?
Thanks!
Most people will suggest coasting. I will offer a different perspective.
I 100% agree you should no longer be tethered to your computer/phone at all times, god-forbid you fail to respond to an associate or VP's email within five minutes. If you want to stroll out the office at 6pm on a Friday to start boozing with your friends, or duck out during lunch on weekdays for a 1-hr workout - you should forsure be doing all that.
Enjoy your analyst "gap" year, secure with the knowledge that (so long as you do not commit major fuck-ups) you no longer have to worry about face-time or putting in 110% to please your superiors.
However, if you can summon the willpower to do the following three things, you'll enter your PE job on day 1 far ahead of your peers who chose to go through the motions. It honestly won't even require incremental investment of time since you can shirk on lower value-add bitch tasks.
Start taking on higher "value-add" responsibilities: Let the first year slave over PIBs, watermarking and sending 200+ CIMS, redacting SSNs from 1000-page tax returns, and turning comments. You should be thinking through what essential information needs to be on a CIM page, efficiently gathering the relevant data, and designing the optimal slide layout to convey the key message. You should be building the operating model from scratch. You should be proactively creating various analyses to facilitate buyer diligence. You should be leading model calls with management, and chiming in on diligence calls with buyers. You should be reviewing the work done by your QoE vendor and providing them constructive input.
Investment Framework: Identify the industries your PE firm focuses on. Look at their portfolio companies. Find similar companies your current bank has sold. Study the contents of these company folders on your bank's network drive. Understand the key industry trends, jargon, KPIs, Become familiar with the value chains. If the PE firm you're headed to is FIG-focused, you should know what an ISO is and what role they play in the payments landscape....if HC-focused, you should know how $'s flow from and between patient ---> insurance company / PBM ---> pharmacy ----> wholesale distributor ----> drug manufacturer
Confirmatory Diligence Workstreams: Starting studying the workstreams you previously never truly understood. market study, QoE, NWC peg negotiations, SPA mark-ups, disclosure schedules, R&W insurance, IT diligence, etc. Most banking analysts are simply acting as information conduits facilitating the work done by these various third parties. Take the time to understand the underlying significance of all these workstreams and how they fit into the overall transaction process. If you ever want to advance beyond the associate level in PE, you will need to be able to understand and manage all these diligence workstreams,