References when moving to PE in London
How does the process in London work? Do they ask you to provide a list of names? Do they call their connection at your firm? What do they ask? Your ranking/deals?
My performance in a bulge bracket bank in London was not outstanding this year, and I won't be promoted to ASO. I ended up in the bottom bucket, but it was a surprise for me and for many people I work with.
I had many good feedbacks, and people believed I would be promoted to ASO, BUT few had a different view. It mainly depended on who I worked with and what they covered. We have part of the team that focuses on client relationships, and the random client asks; they are rarely involved in deals. These are things that I am less interested in doing, and hoping to leave soon; I was not motivated enough to push on things I did not want to do. Indeed I want to do deals, and in PE, I could focus on what I enjoy.
My team has people who appreciate me, know me and can say great things about my performance. My fear is that they randomly call some of the people who don't like me or HR. My feedbacks are not all mediocre; instead, they are polarized. And of course, with the current economic environment this year, they've been stricter.
PE Firms on my radar are between 30-100bnAUM. Are you familiar with how referencing and background checks are done in London?
I also read about how, in the US, MDs need to recommend you almost when you start your job, which confuses me. Can someone clarify if in London they will call my MDs?
Because if they call the right MD, I'm ok; if they reach the wrong one, I'm screwed.
p.s If useful I was not laid off because they believed I can perform well. I was explicitly told that they want to keep me, but I need to perform better on topics I don't want to cover.
Firstly, not getting promoted is a very very red flag. Your concern shouldn't be regarding references for PE recruitment, it should be not getting canned. Everyone I know who got sacked at my firm was a bottom bucket.
At my PE firm, UMM firm which is one of the most active in Europe, they always call previous VPs / Directors to give feedback informally. This happens at the offer stage / background. As long as no one says that you did something really bad, then no one will actually care.
Also, when it comes to promotion, 90% of Analysts usually get Associate, and if you don't get promotions then you are doing something very wrong. I don't work at your firm, so obviously cannot comment, but I doubt only a "few" had a different opinion. Likewise, just FYI, in PE you will also do the "boring" task, probably more at the larger fund
As an associate in UMM/MF PE, the majority of your job will not be sexy work doing deals. 90% of your job will be doing boring process / admin stuff or updating the model for the 194th time. Also, the recruiting market this year is pretty rough so I think you will be in a difficult spot to recruit when you didn't get the promotion. Huge red flag that you can't do stuff you don't like to do because there will be plenty of it in PE as well.
My bank has a 3-year analyst program, so for us, 5/10% get an early ASO promotion.
Let's say that part of my team covers insurance(EXAMPLE), and I knew I did not want to stay in banking and, most of all, did not want to grow in insurance. So I have good feedback from people who focus on deals. But poor feedback from those who cover insurance. It's part of our team's strategy to expand the insurance focus, and I felt I was not in a position to say I did not want to do it, so I was doing the bare minimum. I was not expecting good feedback from them but also, I was not expecting it be so bad. To get to my current rating, insurance people gave me the lowest score; otherwise, the numbers don't add up. Some of them wanted me out. They have to hate me, so I am scared about them talking to my potential future employers. I wish it was the boring deal-related admin; it would be still much more useful than insurance.
I know I did not give 100%, but now I am trying to see what I can do to mitigate this. Apart from 2-3 individuals in my team(27 total), I have good feedback; people love working with me. I did 2 other internships in different companies that gave me great feedback.
Those individuals who rated me poorly have always been passive-aggressive since I started, they hate what they are doing and I fear they would try to ruin my attempt to leave for something better.
I know I will be competing against top bucket people for pe, so I am trying to see how to mitigate the damage.
When I started, I wanted to join a pure industry team but was not selected, I tried to change, but the last year was not great for banking. So I just tried to resist, not too passionate about what I was doing, hoping to leave for PE.
Usually, I perform well in interviews I am just scared to reach the final stages and that they'll do informal calls and speak with the wrong people.
How did everything go in the end?
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