I think hiring diverse candidates has importance for teams for a variety of reasons, and I am wondering why we don’t see as many diversity programs in PE like we see in IB?
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Every sponsor has this they don't market like banks
Idk about that… seen plenty of mm team pages and it doesn’t look like it
Lol this is generally what I've noticed too ^
What you don't realize is the candidate pool is 80/20 men/women and so the 20 women get their pick of the litter which means mf/umm. It's simple
The large public PE firms all do.
The small shops in the middle of Iowa probably don't. It's kind of silly to have a diversity program if you're only hiring like 3 people.
Although it’s not marketed, most firms try to hire a diverse set of individuals to round out their teams. Most PE firms still lack any sort of cultural, racial, and/or socioeconomic diversity, so I’m a believer that it’s a good thing long-term. The difference between PE and IB recruiting is that the stakes are higher. Meaning - missing on an Associate is costly from a $ and time perspective since you’re bringing on so few. It doesn’t matter what background you came from, some of the worst experiences of my career thus far (sr associate now) and for others I work with, has been when our firm has brought on someone that can’t handle the work load, lacks drive, etc. In banking, even the sub-par to average analyst can still get by and contribute to a team with menial tasks but that simply doesn’t work at even an UMM PE firm. Even the largest firms are much smaller than most reputable investment banks that have the resources to have structured corporate hiring programs.
I’ve noticed the majority of diverse seeming hires I’ve seen in PE, regardless if they were actually hired out of a diversity program or not, still had very impressive backgrounds (previously worked at a top bank, went to a good school, graduated with honors etc).
1) This simply not true. Go to the websites (or look through LinkedIn posts) of sponsors: they are inundated with DEI highlights (eg firm X sponsored this program at this school for “underrepresented” minorities, CEO Y spoke at this event, etc.)
2) I’ll post something controversial for once on this forum: I unequivocally oppose these types of diversity hire programs, which I’ve seen get horrendously abused at the expense of hardworking individuals who get rejected simply due to their skin color (usually White and Asian males). I’ve been asked to kick drop male candidates so the pool is “at least half female”, asked to re-select my candidates so “it’s not half Asian people”, and forced to push through a terrible candidate to the next round simply because the candidate is LGBTQ and we need “that representation”. The types of conversations that happens behind closed doors for these programs are straight up mind boggling and I’ve actually withdrew from a lot of recruiting initiatives because I couldn’t handle the BS.
Sad to hear
You are contributing to the problem by backing out of the initiatives.
I believe having a well rounded class and individuals is important. I also think hiring in both IB and PE should be done based on merit rather than on the way people look, or any other factors
I think the bigger firms have such programs, but many mm and LMM places do not from what I’ve seen. Not sure why certain places have these programs and others do not
As someone who is diverse, I find diversity programs to be kind of insulting. That firms would create a programs for people who look a certain way or come from a few specific backgrounds. One can be diverse and competent simultaneously and get a job without a program to give a recruiting advantage.
.
Because at that point it actually matters if candidates are capable.
Supporters of DEI claim there are still ceilings in place that DEI doesn’t solve but the reality is after a while you actually have to perform and if you can’t you’re out.
Only roles where you can be on autopilot or subpar and still contribute will they push these programs out.
Anyone who thinks hiring based on immutable phenotypical characteristics is justifiable is being dishonest and masking a leftist / Soros initiative to reduce the effectiveness of important financial organisations. It’s actually racist if you think you need to hold the blackies to a lower standard just to get one in the room… cope
one additional point to all of the above, is that banks target students that may still be clueless about what opportunities are out there, so pushing diversity agendas makes them more visible to diversity students and this can make them consider applying (raising the talent pool).
PE doesn't need the same visibility, it only cares about attracting the ones that already have relevant experience, so diversity is only marginally considered
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