Second thoughts after starting work in PE
Good afternoon. I'm posting this to perhaps reach someone who has went through a similar experience.
To give some background, I recently joined a LMM PE fund.
The application process was tough and being accepted felt like a massive victory as working as a master-of-the-universe (supposedly) in the Private Equity industry was something that had captivated me for years. It seemed like the endgame industry to be in - money, interesting work, prestige etc.
Now being in the industry I see that the money is alright, the work is relatively interesting, compared to most other jobs, and prestige doesn't really matter as no one outside the finance industry attaches much value to PE. However, there was one factor I failed to grasp a good understanding of during the hiring process - the people.
There is not a single person in the firm who I look up to and think "Hmm, I want to be more like that person" or "They are inspiring". Social interactions with them are dry, void of any meaning, and superficial. I've tried relentlessly to steer conversation in different directions but without much success. It seems that people are content with a binary choice of only talking about work matters or nothing at all.
As I am still quite young, I suppose my question is - is this how it's supposed to be? Does this apply to the industry as a whole or is it rather very fund-specific?
Definitely having second thoughts about this job and wonder if jumping ship this early would constitute as career suicide.
Yes - that's par for the course in this industry
Hate to burst your bubble here but the glamour of private equity or investing can be overhyped by students and outsiders. At the end of the day, its still a corporate job and frankly many of your colleagues simply don't have the time to be exploring meaningful debates when they need to finish a memo before an IC or update a model with quarterly figures. Don't take it personally, there's a right time and place to have more interesting convos - networking lunches, events, etc. This isn't the VC world or Silicon Valley, take the time to learn the team culture and work hard, do not try to stand out too much or else you risk pissing off others too early on. If after a year or two, you realize that you don't fit the culture or don't enjoy working in PE, make the jump to a different focus/industry.
Thank you for taking the time to reply. You make a fair point with regard to colleagues simply not having the time on their hands, hadn't looked at it that way. I suppose the right thing to do is to stick with it for a year and reassess then.
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