Want to preface the upcoming pessimism by saying I'm lucky to be in my seat in MM PE and feel the experience has drastically improved my long-term career trajectory.
However taking an objective view at the state of the industry, are overall working hours in PE only getting worse due to reasons below?
- Overarching point is generally more competition, particularly for quality assets
- Increasing number of banked processes and a higher propensity to pre-empt and take the asset off the table because your competitor will if you don't go fast enough (FOMO)
- PE / institutional capital moving further down the chain, thus more future auctions and sophisticated sellers optimizing for price
- Higher valuations: harder or more creative underwrites needed, M&A in many situations feels like a necessity to make math work, more involvement on value creation post-deal, while increased leverage means less cushion for shocks and more fire drills
- Rising amount of early diligence / thematic "pre-work", market research and mapping to prep for upcoming processes in addition to general schmoozing with sellers / management teams, all of which is becoming par for the course and undifferentiated
- The glut of mid-levels that need to take as many deal at-bats as possible given vying for a seemingly lower number of possible Partner seats as many firms hit a maturity point in their pyramids
Curious if others have thought about this, agree or disagree from their experience in PE.
Sounds horrible.. why the fuck would anyone want to do this lol
Yes it’s structurally getting much worse. All of high finance now even hedge funds is all about “running through walls.” Like who dreams of that. For PE the burning portfolios and performative / political nature of most firms is the key culprit
Also, as all this happens people becoming less willing to give up their seats, making upward mobility ever more difficult. So basically it sucks
Yeah pretty accurate, broadly speaking candidate pool of associates / new hires just seem weaker overall as well. This forces more mid level people to have to take on what should be associate work, makes it even worse.
Honestly, I think it's always been like this and I'm 12+ yrs into my career. Non-tech opportunities at any established fund has been not entrepreneurial (and super competitive) for 25+ years now. Tech PE had a period in the early 2000's where a small group realized software businesses are great vehicles for PE, but that has long since corporatized and become ultra competitive as well.
Yes it is.
Add in more bullshit regulation and processes.
Unde iusto consequatur non quia eum. Nostrum et eius rerum. Vitae praesentium est id.
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