Secondaries PE - Any insight on work and lifestyle?
Is there anyone on WSO that works for a secondary PE shop? Thinking of funds like Lexington, Blackstone Strategic, Ardian, Alpinvest, Pantheon, etc. Really any reputable secondaries shop.
It is really hard to find any type of information on what exactly a junior level investment professional does day-to-day. I have a very good understanding of how the secondary PE markets work and am aware of the strategies as well. I am just looking for literal day to day tasks for junior employees. I am also very curious to see what the lifestyle is like in secondaries. How are the hours? Weekend work? Culture compared to direct PE?
Appreciate any color.
Culture and hours completely depends on the firm. three examples below which shows how diverse cultures and hours can be depending on the firm.
Have a friend at BX strategic partners, friend at pantheon and briefly met someone at lexington.
BX strategic partners: his hours are brutual/ worse than the direct PE team, in fact the strategic partners juniors are normally the last to leave the office and the culture is very brutal with a lot of weekend work, work life balance does not exist in this team but their returns are incredible and they get paid the same as the direct PE team. My friend here hates his life, lost his gf but is grinding it out as will be worth it in the long run.
Pantheon: great culture, depends on which team you're in infrastructure pe vs corporate pe. Infra culture is incredible with a great work life balance and the corporate pe team also has a decent culture but not as good as infra. Pay here is lower than other funds and also lower than IBD but given the fantastic culture my friend here loves life and said he would never leave.
Lexington: small amount of employees so a close knit team, good deal flow and decent culture but still work a fair amount of hours and doesnt have as good of a culture as pantheon. In terms of culture i would place them somewhere in the middle between BX Strategic partners and pantheon.
Hope this helps.
Interesting difference between the infra and corporate teams at Pantheon, do you know if there's a similar comparison to be made at BX for infra vs corporate within Strategic Partners?
Thank you for all that info - very informative and kind of what I assumed, except I did not know it was that bad at Blackstone Strategic Partners.
Do you mind getting a little more specific into the number of hours / schedule? For example, at Pantheon are we talking like 9am - 7pm with minimal weekend work? Also, do you mind giving a range on how much lower the all-in comp at Pantheon is? Is it around $200k all in for a first year associate? Thanks once again
Pay at places like pantheon will be around 10-20% lower base salary than IBD with about a 50% bonus at the associate levels.
Hours are hard to give an average as it depends on live deal vs bidding vs busy period vs quiet period etc. but if I was to try average it out at a place like panethon monday to thursday is about 8pm finish at the junior level (analyst or associate) and 6pm finish on Fridays with minimal weekend work. But ofc during live/busy periods you'll be working later.
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Also interested. I don’t have any concrete insight on lifestyle, but I can’t imagine the work to be too much this year. Secondary markets for PE are essentially dead right now and probably won’t pick up until next year. I highly doubt any secondary fund is looking to hire in the next year
Secondary markets are actually doing well and theres been a large number of funds that have recently raised new funds dedicated to secondaries due to LPS wanting liquidity in uncertain times like these.
Bumping for any additional comments
bump
How about Alpinvest? Appreciate any insights!
~60 hours a week at GS’ co-investment/secondaries group.
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