Working for Free in PE

Hey man, I'm a bit older than you and went through a somewhat similar situation when I graduated, so hopefully this perspective is helpful.

I graduated in 2020 from a semi target in the middle of COVID with nothing lined up. By some miracle, a PE firm in NYC had a posting on our campus recruiting portal looking for a couple analysts to help them with sector research. They offered me a 1 year role with $50k base and a $20k bonus - laughably low for NYC, but their argument was that I would start remote and didn't need to pay COL. Despite the terrible comp, I was stoked after getting the offer - I went from unemployed and living in my childhood bedroom to "working in PE" in NYC. There were two schools of thought for how to move forward: one was to keep looking for a real job that actually paid decently and wasn't temporary, and the other was to dig in and improve my current situation. I decided to go with option 2 - I worked my ass off for the first 6 months and impressed the partners enough to give me a permanent job at the fund as their first undergrad hire. I got a $50k comp raise, and although that still wasn't much compared to what my peers were making, I was learning a lot and felt like I could leverage my experience to find a higher paying gig. 

I ended up leaving 1.5 years in for an IB M&A role, which funnily enough made me decide to leave the industry entirely and go the corporate route (the lifestyle was so awful that the incremental pay was just not worth it). In hindsight, I should have stayed at the fund and continued to gain investing experience instead of chasing the shiny object that was IB with higher pay, but that's life.

Fast forward to today: I'm heading to HSW for my MBA after leaving finance to work in an operating role. I haven't yet made as much money as my peers that started out in conventional banking / consulting tracks, but I've had some interesting experiences with much better WLB.

Assuming you like the work and the folks you're working with, my advice to you is to dig in and make yourself a clear value-add for the firm. Do they have an office where you can get in person? That was critical for me - getting on conference calls with the deal team and being in the room was the best learning experience. I would also ask them if they're willing to buy Training the Street or WSP so that you can learn basic technical skills to better support the team. Try to learn as much as you can from the partners, and try to negotiate for a base salary as soon as possible. IMO fully remote with a $65-80k salary for the midwest is not bad at all for first gig out of college. The guy saying you should work at Panda is ignoring the fact that you are (hopefully) gaining valuable skills that are transferable to other high paying corporate roles. Ideally you can get a base salary by September, and if things don't improve ~6 or so months after that, you can look to lateral with a full year of experience under your belt.