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!
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?)
Thoughts on the pros/cons of starting a career in Austin/Chicago vs NYC? Are the cons meaningful enough to take a lesser PE job in NYC vs Vista?
How difficult is it to land at Vista post IB? I am very interested in Tech PE but have already signed with a GS, MS, JPM, EVR, Q caliber group for 2021. How would their process compare to other strong tech investors like Thoma, Silver Lake, etc ?
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.
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
don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist but only two people on this thread saying interviews are out are both brand new accounts saying the exact same thing. I know multiple people (some who are incredibly qualified) that applied, and some have gotten rejected some have heard nothing. No one has received a first round so I’m skeptical