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Congrats beast. Do you feel you have strong room to grow with the firm / reach Partner level? Are your firms' carry marks realistic / are they distributing back well & are LPs satisfied, or are you not factoring that into your wealth equation right now
Who knows about partner but principal is on the books for sure
Have been in PE for ~6 years now. I think it’s a really interesting job and I glad I chose this path. Comp is good and hours, while not a walk in the park, have generally lowered over time. Don’t have any plans to leave anytime soon, just signed up a new gig actually. Love NYC, money helps me be able to enjoy the city to its fullest.
Not in PE just yet,but boy can I attest that having money in a city really changes the game.
I don’t make it out much obviously becuase of hours, but when I do, spending on a really classy evening dinner or a day at Wimbledon/Queens with not a care in the world for cost is just 👌🏼
What fund size are you at currently / previously? And would you say hours have generally lowered after your first 2/3 associate years?
Assume you were replying to me (didn’t get the notification but may be a glitch). Generally would say that’s right that my hours went down after my associate years. I did most of my associate stint through COVID and got worked like crazy my first 18 months or so. My average hours worked have gone down and I have more line of sight / control over my schedule but the VP job comes with a bit more pressure and you feel more plugged in. Both funds I’ve worked at have been in the $3-7B range, second one is a bit smaller (not by much) but there’s a more pronounced talent gap at the junior level (lower comp, less established business school pipeline, etc.). Current firm is also leaner – that combined with the lower quality junior talent has made deal sprints actually worse. Heading to a $10B+ fund where team is relatively lean but talent appears to be pretty strong. We will see how it ends up.
Been in in LMM PE for 7 years now - took a flier and joined a newly formed firm early in my career that has really taken off. Hours and stress have been brutal but the momentum and wins have really bolstered the long-term wealth opportunity. I'd be bored doing anything else and plan on working till I kick the bucket.
What fund size are you at and are you based in NYC/Bay? What's comp looking like at year 7 for LMM PE?
Tier-2 City with more of a non-traditional / family office structure. Cash comp is more modest but the equity comp has resulted in just south of $1m annually in the last 2-3 years.
Also curious how old the firm was when you joined? And what fund size is like now vs starting size? Looking to join a LMM firm myself from an MF for similar reasons
Brand new - I was the first employee. Do heavy diligence before you move down market especially if you are joining a younger shop - you likely get one shot and it will be tough transitioning if it doesn't work out.
Not a veteran by any means but 3-4 years in an thoroughly like the job, find it very interesting. Would much rather partner with management teams and deal with internal private equity firm BS rather than do client services or advisory.No plans on stopping.
This will no longer be the case for PE. I'm sorry, but the game is over.
Peep the name of the post. Is there a recent thread that you haven’t commented some form of anti-PE sentiment on? Jeez dude chill out
You loot companies for your income. Go find a real job that actually creates value for society.
If you don't loot how else will you maximize DPI?
Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning? First off, your title says you’re in PE so I’m not sure where you get off saying this. Second, you have absolutely no clue who I am. I have worked with 8 portfolio companies over the last several years and not a single one has seen headcount decline from start to exit. Yes people have gotten fired but that’s the exception not the norm (we had a C-Suite guy basically semi-retire on the job itself, open up a restaurant, buy a ranch, etc. and we still kept him on payroll, gave him his health insurance, and vested the bulk of his options). For the 6 that have sold or are 4-5 years into the hold, 3 of them are 2.5x+ MOIC outcomes. Just because your PE firm isn’t doing well / you are unnecessarily jaded doesn’t mean you have to sour every single post in this forum. Sure PE isn’t what it was in the 1980s but to write-it off as an industry devoid of any value? Keep me posted on your humanitarian exploits.
I was at an independent sponsor and won 2023 North America Energy Deal of the Year for my work with my former group at Citadel creating PureWest Energy, now the leading natural gas producer in the Rockies. It originally involved Blackstone PE and sold for $1.8B. 350% ROIC and infinite ROE. Evercore advised and Vinson & Elkins was outside counsel. I now work with the former CEO of GS Blankfein, Hank Paulson, et al. on a venture you will soon enough hear about in the news. My former boss made over $200 million personally off the transaction.
I left the industry because it no longer makes any financial sense and went back into natural gas trading where I began my career. I'm now indexed to volatility instead of interest rates. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that longer-term interest rates are likely to be higher as the economy changes and policy is in flux. I do like the work Peter Stavros is doing at KKR with employee ownership, but on the whole PE was always just levered beta and an outsized shareholder / management remuneration scheme attached to a basket of small cap stocks, which no longer works in a rising rate, low growth, inflationary, and more volatile economy.
Bro didn't you leave PE for commodity trading? Great social impact there mate
If you think you might want to recruit for PE or HF - Lazard and it’s not even close. If you know for sure you don’t want to be in a finance role and want to be more operations focused - Alix is better.
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