Vista Equity Partners 2021

Just saw that the application for the 2021 full time PE analyst position went live. My understanding is that this IQ test you get after you submit the app is very influential. Does anyone know the format / how to prepare? Thanks in advance!

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"scrub3410k" I think it may just be the CCAT. You can find practice CCATs online. It's like 50 questions in 12 minutes? maybe 15 minutes.

This is the CCAT, indeed.

Creator of https://www.ccatpracticetest.com/vista-equity-partners-test/
 

50 questions in 12 minutes is the NFL's test of choice: the Wonderlic. Free version online, great to take as a prep for any of this style of test.

 

curious to hear what people think of Vista's FT analyst program - i've seen some comments that you don't do any modeling work and they'll kick you out after the 2 years, or that they don't recruit top students, but Vista is a great name to have on your resume just out of undergrad. How is the FT analyst program viewed by yourself, classmates, or anyone you know in the industry?

 
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My thoughts: - View on vista has changed substantially over the last few years, recently raised largest tech fund ever at $16bn back in june and have cemented themselves among the MFs and arguably the top tech investor in the world from an AUM/Return perspective. These guys absolutely crush it. - From what I've heard, associate owns the model and the analyst supports the associate on it, which basically means the analyst runs the analyses on finding the inputs for the lbo (what should we project revenue at/what is historical customer churn and why) and the associate puts it all together - A quick scan of their website/linkedin shows significant mobility up from analyst and no push out for an mba, though looks like they do hire from mba, picked up someone from hbs last cycle - In terms of MF PE analyst programs I know this is one of the ones that has been around for a while so I would guess the training would be phenomenal especially with how active vista is, you probably see a ton of cool deals (See: Jio investment alongside FB/KKR/SL a few weeks ago) - Culture is intense, not for the faint of heart, but at this level you kind of expect it - As you said, vista name on resume is killer for exit opps, past analysts have gone on to kkr/tpg/hbs/etc. - For the reasons above, I would absolutely view it as one of the most coveted positions out of undergrad if you know you want to do PE and like tech investing. Only hesitations would be if you like tech or if you dont want to be in Chicago/Austin for two years (I believe they allow transfers to SF for associates, and they have a NYC office I believe?)

 

Thanks for the info. From what I could gather PE team sits in SF/Chicago/Austin, Hedge fund/Capital markets sit in NYC, and consulting group sits in SF/Austin

 

Saw on another forum that their application is circulated around target schools first, is that the case right now or is there a public link somewhere? Would appreciate any info, thanks!

 

Idk if it was sent around before but right now it is up on their website under "careers"

 

All large cap PE positions are a blood bath to get. Think about all of the sharp type A people at all of the top banks / target schools each year and then think about all slots taken from nepotism/favor hires and you'll see why it is so difficult to get to the other side. SL & Vista hire analysts and promote most of them so they hire far fewer associates than say Thoma or H&F

 

Had a couple friends go thru process... from conversations with them, they’ve said it’s all about getting into top x% of CCAT assessment. From those convos - have ascertained that Vista has a very systematic recruitment process, as the thread outlines above, so being well-connected isn’t nearly as important as it is in banking recruiting.

 

Anyone know if interviews are on a rolling basis or given out when the app closes?

 

I've made it to a 2nd round interview before on their lateral analyst recruitment. Not to the superday 3rd round. Allegedly they like to have a huge funnel. Can confirm CCAT is an important data point but not the only one they look at.

 

To clarify - has anyone in this recruitment year gotten an interview yet?

 

How does the personality assessment work? The invitation said it would be responding to statements about you, is this verbal responses or picking an answer on a scale (ie. Least Accurately Describes Me to Most Accurately Describes Me)?

 

Did people get the link to the IQ test immediately after applying or did it take a bit? Also did anyone else get a LinkedIn message from one of their recruiters asking you to apply ?

 

Put my name in the hat but not expecting much. I've been told that they will review applications once the window closes (which I believe is July 5th?). Did anyone get a rejection email already? Perhaps maybe from not scoring high enough on the assessment which I assume is scored automatically?

 

Spoke with the campus recruiter, the timeline is as follows: July 5th applications close, immediately sent link to IQ and personality assessments which you have 5 days to submit, July 13th first round phone interview, July 20th second round phone interview, August 3rdish virtual superday with 6 interviews

 

Not 100% sure, but what I'm assuming from how they worded it was that the interviews will happen throughout that week. Thus, July 13th is the first day they start (Monday) and they'll wrap up before the second round starts the following week if that makes sense. The entire process is super efficient so I would expect to hear back next week.

 

Yeah... how did they even assess our application before the application closed? Did they automatically screen out non-targets?

 

I received an email about scheduling a first round phone interview. Additionally, there’s an interview prep event 7/9, so I would assume most rejections/invitations would be sent before then. The timeline is still similar to what I commented earlier but August 1st for the superday. Edit: I don’t think it’s office specific.

 

Well, I guess this is the last time I post trying to help. Not sure why I got ms or what reason a troll would have for answering a question a few people asked, but if you actually are curious about the timeline you can pm me.

 

should we expect multiple batches or does not hearing back = rejection by now?

 

just also want to put a PSA out there: if you are an international w/o green card, do not bother at the moment. source: inside info

 

def don't sponsor, nor do they take OPT. they don't want anyone without citizenship/permanent residency (maybe if you already have an H-1B it's different but i doubt anyone with a H1B would want to risk losing it by switching firms right now)

 

Haven't received an invite. Assuming I was cut. Surprising since I felt the 2nd round went fairly well. Hopefully if the invites did go out someone can post so we can go on with our lives.

 

Based on the 2nd round interview dates they were still doing phone interviews yesterday, so we might not hear back until tomorrow or Thursday.

 

Got a superday invite late last night, any insights on how it'll be?

 

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