Q&A: Non Targ -> BB Coverage Group -> Incoming MM PE

Originally from the midwest, so going back there just made the most sense. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed NYC and having to go out of my comfort zone to get to know new people and groups of friends, but as you get older you begin to value your personal time more and more, and i figured i would enjoy it more around family and friends.

Chose my fund based on industry focus and culture. The culture in my group has eroded over the past 2 years and i realized how important it is to work around people you like, so that was a focus for my recruiting. The people at my new fund are just all around great individuals, and the funds focus is on a vertical of my industry that i'm very interested in and could see myself staying in for a long time. So stars kind of aligned there.

In terms of comp, it's less than comparable MMs here in NYC, but not by a ton. a first year asso at a MM PE shop should expect around ~$200 all in for their first year. For reference, latest fund size at my firm was in the 500-800 range, with a total AUM of ~1.5-2.0bn. obviously at upper MM firms in the midwest, these comp numbers will be higher (think MDP, GTCR).

interview process was standard for PE - phone screen followed by a super day (7-8 interviews, and a case study which consisted of building a full 3 statement model from scratch including LBO, and also an investment pitch). This is indicative of every firm i interviewed with (which was a lot). I have a ton of experience interviewing for PE (talked to like 20 different firms over the course of my 1st / 2nd year), so i'm happy to elaborate more here if need be.

Does have a bschool track record, a few of the partners have relationships with a few top programs (sit on the board of admissions, etc.). Recent associates have placed at Wharton and Booth, with the latter being more common. As far as internal promotions, they don't have a history of promoting, but they are open to the idea if there is a good fit and a need for a new VP.

Hopefully this was helpful in answering your questions. also, like the username.

What the hell? Why'd you jump straight to "weren't able to"?

Total morons on this site sometimes..

not at all, never wanted to do a MF. Interviewed with a few, but i just wasn't attracted to the focus. Some MF and upper MM shops are great, but as a whole they wouldn't provide the experience that you will get as an associate at a smaller MM firm. As a whole, you get more experience when you're on smaller teams and given more responsibility, which tends to happen at MM firms. i've worked on the sell side for a few deals where the buyers were the TPGs, KKRs, Carlyles of the world and they have like 6-7 people on each team. the associates role is almost like the analyst role at an IBD ( very rigid expectations in terms of work responsibility, not a ton of opportunity to play up to a higher role), and that's not what i want out of a PE experience. I also find smaller deals to be more interesting just due to the operating aspects of the business - tend to have higher growth, more malleability from a PE owner perspective and you're more likely to see considerable operational change over the course of your investment versus a typical MF investment. There is a lot less financial engineering at MM firms too, which was attractive to me.

in terms of your other questions, yea i mean having a high GPA from a target is very important, so is networking, but i think what's equally as important is the group you're in. You can have a 4.0 from harvard but if you're in a poor performing group that has not had any notable exits in recent years, it will be difficult to get interviews, as headhunters rely on 2nd and 3rd years from banking groups to provide them with the 1st years that should be considered for top positions. so keep that in mind.

I will say though, if you're in it for the money, you are going to be miserable. You should want to go to a MF for the network, for the exposure to large, potentially landscape changing deals, and for a 2 year continued learning program that will ultimately result in bschool. If you're doing it for the money, you will burn out and hate your life. Work/life at MF's is arguably worse than most banks.

lol hilarious troll

Absolutely, anytime. Happy to help wherever i can.

When i met with headhunters i specifically said i wanted to go to a MM PE fund and wanted to be in the Midwest (granted i still interviewed with a few brand name funds out east for the experience and to give them a chance). I wasn't necessarily set on staying in my industry, but it just so happens that the city i'm moving to has a lot of funds focused solely on my industry, so again as i mentioned before the stars just kind of aligned. I was open to generalist positions though and other industries, which i communicated to the headhunters when we met.

Regarding my group, a lot of people who have left in the past have moved on to funds focused on the same industry, but there have been individuals who have gone on to generalist roles, hedge funds, etc. If you communicate your desire to headhunters that you want to move away from your industry, and you are a desirable candidate (good GPA, good school, have great deal experience), you should have absolutely no problem pivoting away from your industry to either a non-related industry or to a generalist role from a coverage group. Same can be said for generalist groups at banks (M&A, levfin, sponsors), you are more tailored towards generalist roles at funds, but if you make it known you want to go to a industry focused fund, and have the resume to support that, you should have absolutely no problem. you just need to make your desires known to headhunters, as they are the gatekeepers for most interviews.

Also, if helpful, i'm in a coverage group at one of the banks you mentioned. so happy to elaborate more on specifics if you want to PM me.

Thanks homie.

haven't started yet so can't speak definitively to lifestyle, but i was told expect hours to be 9-6 on average, with them being more like 9-9/10 when you're working on live stuff. but i can't give you a honest answer until i start, which will be in a month and a half, so i can try and get back to you on that. As far as i know, no Saturdays or Sundays unless you're working on something live.

Vacation policy is i get one day for every month i work this year (so will be 5 days, as I start in late July/early August), and then 15 a year therafter. Firm also names 5 holidays throughout the year randomly, so i guess it's more like 20 vacation days, which is pretty tight. but we'll see how much i can utilize them.

Again, i can try and report back later but i'm still in banking for the time being, unfortunately.

Not a ton of people in my class have recruited for PE thus far to be honest (some left for corp dev, some are looking at/going to hedge funds, others aren't really focused on recruiting), but those who did want to recruit got hit up for a fair amount of the firms they were looking at. To be honest, those in my class who are leaving (there are 5 of us), none of us really wanted to do upper MM/MF PE, but almost all of us interviewed with upper MM or MFs along the way, so the opportunity was definitely there. So long as you have a good resume and are a solid performer, you shouldn't have an issue interviewing with these caliber of firms from coverage groups at any BB, assuming your interest in these firms is communicated to headhunters.

Big differentiators to getting interviews:

• Deal experience (you want to aim to have 2-4 M&A deals on your resume, know these like the back of your hand)

• Class rank (recruiters will ask more senior analysts in the group who is performing well within the 1st year class, and who should be considered for top roles)

• School and GPA (less important, but can certainly be a factor)

• Networking (headhunters control the interviews but networking can be a massive differentiator when it comes to getting interviews, as people inside the firms you want to interview with can pull your resume out of the resume book that the recruiter sends them)

Those are the big things from what i've noticed in my recruiting process.

In terms of travel for interviews outside of NYC, for some i took vacation days, other times i just told my teams i was traveling for personal reasons and would be away from my computer for part of the day, but would work remotely when i wasn't busy. This is generally allowed in my group, but again my group is more open to recruiting so this might not be the best approach to take depending on your groups approach to junior recruiting.