About
Hey Everyone - I am currently an associate entering my second year at a private equity fund based in San Francisco investing out of a ~$2bn fund. I am on the Industrials team and have also done some work in Software as well. I previously spent 3 years as an analyst on J.P. Morgan's Industrials team in NYC where I focused mostly on Transportation & Logistics and Aerospace & Defense. Happy to help answer any of your questions on undergrad recruiting, banking life, recruiting for PE, and working PE.
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WSO Podcast:
Member @Mentor2019 shares his story from a semi-target to landing a bulge bracket investment banking offer. Why he stayed for 3 years before making the jump to private equity and why he targeted smaller funds.
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Thanks
How did recruiting work as a 3rd year (logistically as well like start dates, bonus payout, etc)? Were your interviews easier or more difficult since you had more time in banking than the typical on cycle interviews during your first year?
Were headhunters reaching out to you every year for opportunities at the same funds or do they diminish year over year?
I did my recruiting during my second year (Jan - March). There was a mix of immediate start and 1+ year out opportunities. I still wanted to get more experience in banking and also take more time off between jobs, so I was targeting opportunities that would start after my 3rd year analyst ended. It ended up working out nicely as I finished my 3rd year in early-mid June and then started by next role in early August. My IB pays out bonuses in August, but since I was there through the full 3 year analyst program I had fulfilled by obligations in June and still got paid my bonus after I had left in August.
I think I definitely had more to talk about in interviews and a better overall understanding of the fundamentals of finance by then, which did make the interviews easier. I think I was also a little differentiated as well.
I only went through the recruiting cycle once so did not see duplicate opportunities.
Is there an expectation that you must leave for B-school after two years? Or would you work here for ~4 years as an associate before moving to VP-level?
Depends on the fun, but not at mine. I think the smaller ones are typically more open ended. I've already been offered a 3rd year and there is a path to be internally promoted to partner without needed an MBA at my fund. I think an easy way to check is to look at the Partners / Principals at whatever fund you are interviewing for and see how many of them have MBAs and if they worked their way up from Associate.
Thanks for doing this. You always hear people in PE say that they "enjoy working on deals" (more or less, especially when asked PE vs HF) and I'm struggling to understand exactly what they're talking about. Excuse my lack of experience, but could you take a stab at how you interpret this? What does it mean to "like working on deals" as an investor?
EDIT: For clarification, I get deal mechanics etc (done internships and so forth) but would be interested to get your take on what about deals is appealing
google "leveraged buyout"
When working for an IB and doing a sellside you are basically just trying to spin a story to get the business to sell for the highest price possible. When you are working for an IB and advising a company on the buyside, you are trying to spin all of the numbers so your client can pay the highest price and win the deal
My experience so far on deals has been more about trying to find the right price for an asset. There is still some internal positioning to get it past the investment committee, but if you are the Partner / Principal on the deal then you own in if it goes really poorly. When you're in banking your career doesn't depend on how well the company's you sell or help buy perform.
The most enjoyable part is the critical thinking that goes into it. We recruit former executives from the industry to help us diligence and then eventually sit on the board of our investments. For example from a deal that I worked on, you get to hear former C-Suite executives of FedEx and UPS bat around ideas about the things the transportation business we were looking at was doing right or wrong and how we could make them get better.
Hello, I am currently a UCSD management science major going on my senior year.
My projected UC GPA is 3.3 by the time I graduate. WIll I stand a chance of getting hired at your firm?
If my GPA from my community college is also counted as the cumulative GPA then I can get around 3.5 to 3.6 GPA
I have 1 internship as an investment banker intern at a southeast asian boutique level securities.
Another internship at an insurance company.
What could I do during my senior year to increase my chance of getting hired, I know my GPA is not great. How can I make up for this?
Thank you for your time.
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