Private Equity firms that recruit undergrads?
What PE firms recruit from undergrad? Probably a ton of posts like this, but honestly curious. Would love to get into an REPE firm. I'm a current jobless senior
Nov 10, 2017Nov 10, 2017
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Comments (50)
To my knowledge, there are very few PE firms that hire undergraduates fresh from uni. Have a look at Terra Firma, if I remember correctly they are still running this programme.
Thank you for the suggestion. I am a dual citizen (US & EU) so Terra Firma would actually be perfect for me. Will definitely apply there.
Blackstone
I would search similar posts within the real estate forum if you're set on repe
Actually firms are starting to recruit undergrads but only kids from HYP/S/W with 3.9+
WP, KKR, Carlyle are all informal processes. KKR doesn't do so in the US, WP only after a summer of banking
deleted
Realterm (based in DC) also recruits undergrads, but they are industrial REPE so not the most glamorous.
Do PE firms recruit at UG? Which Ones? (Originally Posted: 04/26/2011)
Im about to make my decision on which college to attend. Im choosing between Columbia, Dartmouth and Stanford. I like all 3 equally and this will probably tell me which school to attend. Do PE shops recruit at these schools? If so, which school do they recruit at more? My current plan was to do UG--->IB--->PE/HF/VC but if I can skip IB, I'll probably do that(not that I dislike IB).
Stanford, Stanford , Stanford
Stanford I think is the best imo
The "marquee" PE feeding grounds are Wharton and Harvard.
Stanford / MIT are better for VC and startup recruitment.
Personally, I would be indifferent between Columbia and Stanford.
I would go to Stanford...twice
If I could pick any elite school to go to, it would be Stanford in a heartbeat.
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I would go to Columbia. Use the NYC location to intern in IB and possibly PE/HF (mid semester) while in college. You can network your ass off in the city too. Columbia will have alumni at every single bank or PE shop you will find.
In order of academics quality of the student body : Stanford/Dartmouth/Columbia
I would personally choose Stanford for the great mix of awesome academics and Cali weather and style. That being said, go to wherever you feel you'll be the happiest from an academic and social standpoint. Columbia is not your traditional college experience from my knowledge (being a student at NYU currently).
In terms of PE that recruit from undergrad I know Blackstone does (I think they only recruit for their advisory group straight from undergrad though), as well as Oaktree
Stanford. DO NOT PASS UP THIS OPPORTUNITY. Besides, you have no clue if you will still want to be a finance guy five years from now. Don't give up any optionality this early.
CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
If you pass up Stanford you deserve a Mike Tyson jab to the taint...in public...on your birthday
I will trade you my job to go back 5 years and start school all over again at Stanford.
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I hear that Toby Gerhart personally tackles the female family members of everyone that declines Stanford.
Hope Grandma SlumstoCPW has been eating her German potato soup.
Another question I have is, how is it easier to get into HF/PE/IB from stanford when the networking and intern opps are less? Dmouth has the D-plan and columbia has its location. Arent these two advantages bigger than what Stanford offers? Im just worried that banks will rather take a 20 minute cab ride to Columbia or a 45 minute plane ride to Dmouth instead of go all the way across the country to recruit kids. Is Stanford that much more "prestigious" on the street? Is Yale any good for recruiting? I've heard its behing these three schools in terms of recruiting(im not considering it as it isnt a good fit for me, I only applied as im a prestige whore).
From my experience, growing up in LA and moving to NYC, I thought being NEAR wall street at a semi-target made ANY job in finance more accessible. This is not necessarily true.
I want to work in LA, and am having to put in extra effort to do so. Thus, if you want to work in New York, I'd urge you to go to Columbia. If you want to work in Cali, I'd urge you to go to Stanford. That being said, either school will open up doors - but I think going to school in NYC may make wall street and the like easier to access simply due to location.
Lastly, in my experience, you can leverage NYC as your city of choice for school big time in terms of internships during the semester that aren't available at other institutions simply due to geography.
People who go to Stanford are mostly smart enough to stay on the West Coast and enjoy the lifestyle. But have no fear all the major firms recruit there - it is just Stanford grads tend to want to stay out West
Stanford is literally on the other side of the fence of/on the same street as one of Wall Street's top groups. You can snag solid internships year round there, just as you could at Columbia.
uhmmm......... STANFORD?
Not trying to be an ass, but If you decide to rather go to dartmouth or columbia, then you deserve to go there.
If you pass up Stanford, you are ridiculous.
Why is everyone so adamant against Columbia?
Because it's against freaking Leland Stanford Junior University.
Dartmouth UG is relatively underrated. In my opinion, the intellectual environment, OCR and prestige of a Dartmouth degree is on par with HYPS... If you like the West go to Stanford, if you like the East go to Dartmouth. I don't think Columbia is on quite the same level in terms of prestige and academics...
Another consideration is that you probably won't want to go to Tuck but you're very likely to want to go to Stanford or Columbia for Business or Law School... Personally I'd rather diversify my experience and not to Stanford and then Stanford or Columbia and then Columbia.
All three of these schools are targets...IB is yours to lose at any of them.
DO NOT DECIDE WHERE YOU SPEND YOUR COLLEGE YEARS BASED ON SOME MINISCULE DIFFERENCE IN RECRUITING!
These are radically different campuses. It is west coast vs city vs rural. Decide based on where you could see yourself being happy and having a good experience. The only caveat I will make for recruiting is Stanford will place better on the WC, and Dartmouth/Columbia will be better for the east.
As for PE out of undergrad, the people that go to reputable firms are mostly exceptions who either had major connections or got very lucky with a BB internship freshman year. The IB -> PE track is on the whole a surer path; it also gives you some flexibility.
Silverlake hire a few top students from Wharton, and Blackstone takes like 3 undergrads per year. Other than those, I don't think many reputable PE firms have formal undergrad recruitment. I have heard rumblings of Cerberus taking a few ugrads for distressed, but we are still talking low single digits. Basically, don't choose your undergrad with PE recruiting in mind.
I've handled recruiting for my firm this year, and I can confirm @apollo95" 's list. But recruiting is over for all firms - and no, we don't do off-cycle interviews, unless maybe you're referred by a MD+.
Audax PE. I don't remember much about other than it's a good shop and I shadowed an MD there as a freshman.
Pretty sure Bain runs undergrad programs
they do, but it's 1 in a million shot. Never hurts to take your chances, though.
idk i know somebody at my school who worked at Bain Capital ventures for his junior summer. maybe he's a stud tho
Just to confirm what other have said: Bain Silver LakeAresLGPWarburgCarlyleBlackstoneCrestviewAudaxKKR (very rare)General AtlanticTPG
Think it's worth it to reach out to smaller shops? Have a list of >1000 from cap iq. Or would they all want prior banking exp. talking low low mm
It's definitely worth it in the sense that LMM firms are fairly open to hiring straight out of undergrad. The real question is if that's what you're looking for. In general, LMM PE firms that hire straight out of undergrad place a strong emphasis on having their analysts source deals. You will spend the VAST majority of time actually finding companies and CEO contact information. This certainly is not the case for every LMM firm, but it is for the majority of them.
There are also some much larger funds that follow this sourcing model and consequently recruit straight out of undergrad.Battery Ventures, Summit Partners, TA Associates
Tobinco TIGER FUND
I heard she calls her analysts Cubs. Maybe Sil can confirm.
Parthenon, Audax, Altamont, GoldenGate
Do they ever take people that are more like 3.6-3.7 GPA from HYP?
First of all, I should start by mentioning that from my minimal working knowledge on REPE's, there are some that hire directly out of undergrad within the Chicagoland area. I have a friend working at one as an intern who anticipates he will be kept on FT after grad.
What I can say in regards to PE is this; every single comment on here has been related to MFs. As someone who really wanted (and still does want) to do PE upon grad, I have found a large number of undergrad students from semi and non targets working in PE without further education. A small percentage (10-20%) went directly from undergrad to PE, but these roles are not glamorous, and typically require a ton of prop research and very mundane tasks. These individuals typically had numerous summer internships in IB/PE, and are working for firms within the lower middle market.
I bring this up because in my eyes, there is so much more to PE than just the top shops and MF's. This is all one persons opinion on the Chicago space only, but I can say with the utmost certainty that they do exist.
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