Working in PE is hell on earth
The insane stress of missing one small detail and causing a deal to fall apart, the dread of defending another deal to the IC, the politics, preparing agendas, taking notes, getting that intralinks notification that the data room just opened at 7pm on a saturday, staying up until 4am creating models 10x more complex than could be possibly necessary, working 100 hours a week for weeks on end with no acknowledgement, competing with a bunch of type A sycophantic humorless freaks for brownie points, completely thankless, soulless work, wasting the best years of your life enriching people wealthier than you ever will be given the glory days of this industry are a decade plus behind us. oh the prestige of being a private equity financier
so then why stay?
because I, like everyone else in this industry, have no clue who i am and what i want, and i'm too addicted to the lifestyle to get off without a plan
“Because I want to fit in”
Yes, OP is a motherfucker.
one of the worst parts is the realization that you're working for partners who never went through what you're going through. there were no cell phones, barely any email, and excel hardly existed when they were your age. now they email you from their hamptons home "would be interesting to see a scenario where..."
I've been thinking about this a lot, and you hit the nail on the head. The MDs have no sympathy for the analysts/associates because they never had it this bad. The VPs have no sympathy because they want us to suffer like they did. Everyone thinks every task takes a quarter of the time it actually does, and all they can muster is a half-assed "Thanks for all the hard work, etc. etc." IF THAT.
I'm in REPE, so I know our experiences may differ, but I've been burning the candle on both ends and running out of runway, too. My firm pays above market, yet I'm realizing that the sacrifices I've had to make are not worth it. I'm taking steps to leave before my body forces me to leave.
i imagine that those with an exit lined up into industry must surely be waiting with eagerness to get such an email on a friday night only to reply "definitely would be interesting, i might take a look into it on monday, have a good weekend!"
They prolly all in the Hamptons bragging bout what they made! Fuck you and your Hampton house! I'll fuck your Hampton spouse! Come on her Hampton blouse and in her Hampton mouth!
x2 pretty sure everyone in this industry has a screw loose. You know how every firm has that one really cool down to earth MD everyone likes. Know what I’m talking about? It’s because the rest are actual psychos. But I’m addicted to spending money so hear I am in a self loathing Catch 22.
And this is why I'll happily stay for now in IB in my "low tier" bank that has apparently "shit dealflow" and "exits" according to this forum. It's still banking at the end of the day but at least I get to keep my sanity and free weekends.
Exactly why I stay in my “boring IG credit” job. This job is easy, low stress, and pays for what I want.
Your point on sycophantic humorless two-faced bitches just hit me in the right spot. Oh baby, yeah, right there.
I sincerely believe everyone in this industry, except those who just somehow love bitch work at least for your first 6 years, will someday come to a crossroad: do you have the gut to actually pursue something you are passionate about, even if it's definitely less money at the beginning, or continue to be locked in golden handcuffs? I'm not saying this from a holier-than-thou PoV, as I'm in banking because I think it's a good way to make some $, and do some shit. Well well, movies are movies after all. There are not many wolfs on the street.
The hard part is knowing what you're actually passionate about.
As an associate at a small LMM firm in a LCOL city I find my experience has been night and day compared to your comment. Really cool seniors who value WLB/family (which that culture trickles down to me), reasonable hours at 50-60 hour a week outside of deals sprints. Downside of that is I'm probably not working at a firm that is known at all in the industry and the compensation track gets a discount compared to MM/MF counterparts, also deal flow is probably not as intense to getting slightly less reps overall than I would at a busy shop.
Overall a sacrifice I'm willing to make as I learned pretty early on in banking that I don't give a shit about pulling in 70-80+ hours consistently for the money/prestige if that means sacrificing so many aspects of my personal life. Also when the lifestyle at your firm is so much better you can actually consider the long-term possibility of this career instead of just looking at it as another means to an end. I'd highly recommend looking down-market if you're willing to make those sacrifices for yourself for what is a much more sustainable lifestyle.
$150K all-in with co-invest and no carry
Yes - very tough to be in a position where you are making $300k+ as a 25 year old with a path to $1mm in your early 30s
There is more in life than money mate...
I agree but you are in PE. That's the point of working in PE
FUCK this shit, I don't give a shit anymore. Fuck IB. Going back to enjoying my life. Not going to continue sacrificing the rest of my college just to join all the struck up finance bros.
I’m a shell of the person I was before this semester. I have gained 10-15 pounds, destroyed my sleep schedule, destroyed my mental and physical health, destroyed multiple personal friendships because I was so busy, hung around the finance bros for so long it made me into an stuck-up finance ass-hat that looks down on some many people, been watching way too much porn, and failed my first ever examI have a superday today but honestly, I barely prepared. I instead spent The Weeknd not giving a fuck, drinking with the boys and had a girl sleepover (first time in forever) . I already have a big 4 offer. Done sacrificing for this IB position that is just gonna have me work even longer hours and make me hate my life more. I spent so much time trying to get a IB offer to please my “finance bros” friends. But all they ever talk about is finance BS and have me feel like complete shut because I haven’t gotten an IB offer. Made me into an arrogant asshat and started to look down on my roommates that have been there since day one, since they do not work as hard as me. I don’t care anymore.
No idea what you mean by its hell, I'm a 42 year old MD at Apollo working 90 hour weeks with 3 kids and a divorced wife, but its all worth it when I get to tell you unprestigious shitbirds on this forum how prestigious my job is.
Convinced everyone in high finance are over dramatic pansies. Jesus Christ.
If you hate the job so much, leave and do something else. It’s just a job. If you don’t hate enough to quit then stay and continue milking more money out of the economy than most working people can. Don’t just complain and do nothing.
Entrepreneurship is one of many answers - the glory of creation, and of willing an idea into existence through blood sweat and tears, is close to unmatched.
Everyday I read stories like this and thank my lucky stars that I chose to pursue software development where one can make 200k+ at 22 yrs old working 30 hours a week and jerking off for the rest of the week
Then why are you on this forum
Somewhere in Africa right as you're reading this a 6 year old kid is mining lithium to profit the Chinese government under the watchful eye of a 12 year old with an AK from the next village over, which happens to be the same village the government official who signed the contract with the Chinese is from.
sheesh bro you sound super unhappy
this is no way to go through life
why not just get a job in corp dev, or strategic finance, take the salary/bonus pay cut (but also... if it's a younger high growth tech company, get some of dat equity upside), and work half the hours on far more interesting work in a much chiller environment? girls / normies will still see you as a high finance guy (if that's something you care about) and you'll actually get to have a life. seems like a no brainer for you. finding a job won't be hard - there are a shit ton of tech companies, corporate vcs, corp dev teams, strategic finance teams, etc, that would love to hire a buyout PE guy.
life's too short to be unhappy.
Totally agree man but it's a tough pill to swallow for a lot of people who have worked their ass off just to get to that PE seat - it almost feels like you're "throwing something away" right? Also, pay cut is tough to swallow on a mental level - obviously nobody actually churns through their TC as a PE Associate but it's the concept of the high pay that sticks in our minds.
I'm saying this as a burnt Associate who's staying for now due to the highly flawed reasons above, but really want to leave. Would guess that most of us have never taken the time, even from a young age, to explore our passions and instead have had a gunner mentality for as long as we remember, distorting the perception of what happiness actually is.
Nice try trying to kill competition warding off prospective analysts. Well guess what, this hardo is not soft
I’m just semi-drunk post Christmas Eve dinner but honestly stfu. Seriously. You’re what I hate about this industry. Do you think everyone is just like you and does this job despite having no passion for it? This is the only sector I know of with so many people who absolutely hate their job but would rather keep doing it and bitching about it rather than being a man/woman and actually doing what you want in life.
This is capitalism, you’re free to decide what you do in life. There’s plenty of people like me who actually mostly enjoy what they do in PE. Go find something that you care about rather than trashing the careers that aren’t for you.