Hours in MM PE?

How are the hours in Middle Market PE? Is it true that usually you don't work on weekends? If you do, how often (how often are you in the midst of a hot deal that weekends get blown up)? interested in NYC only PE shops for Healthcare and/or consumer.

 
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I can't speak to NYC but in general figure anytime you are closing a live deal there is a high probability that your weekend is going to get blown up until the deal closes. So try to get a sense of how many deals the firms typically does per year, the number of associates, and assuming one associate per deal then # deals per year / # associates = # of deals you will be closing per year and for each one there will be about a month or two where you will be working long hours/ weekends. This doesn't take into considerations add-on, which in my experience can be nearly as much of a headache as a platform (not sure if this is unique to my experiences or other posters will agree).

Besides live deals, hours are going to be 100% firm dependent. I have a great work/life balance at a non-NYC lower middle market fund but there are definitely some tradeoffs that come with that balance. Also, the VPs/Principals that I work with have been at the fund for a while and are usually very well aligned with the partners in terms of expectations so that is very helpful in being efficient on deals.

 

What would you say are those tradeoffs? Overall satisfied with the move?

 

This is fun to look back on. I certainly was still wearing rose colored glasses in 2018. The time was a good stepping stone but think I bought in a little too much to PE being the goal and took me a little while to figure out the shortcomings of the role I was in at the time.  
 

I have since moved to Corp Dev for a large tech company. I did not have that good of a work/life balance, culture was mediocre, and I learned a ton but had very limited growth in the role. 
 

I am much happier now but that’s based on my current goals. I could see I bigger fund where you are really focused on deals being a cool role especially if you have a true value add to your portfolio even if that is just a sector focus. 

 

Can't speak to the industries you're targeting or NYC, but I rarely go into the office on weekends (5-10 weekend days a year at my desk). That doesn't mean no work though, often I open the laptop for a handful of hours basically each weekend to do some admin tasks I procrastinated or something involving a deal.

PE is a career where you are always on, I haven't found much success in leaving work at the office and the directors/partners at my firm sure haven't either. When you are in the shower? You're thinking about a deal. At the beach? Thinking about possible new verticals for the platform investment you just made.

Expect some weekends to be blown up, but find a firm that doesn't blow up planned vacations.

 

Totally agree with this, except the point about blowing up planned vacations. My fund has a great lifestyle and a good degree of autonomy, but when it comes to completing a deal, you are needed around the clock, that is the nature of the industry.

I had a vacation earlier this year, and whilst I was still able to take it, the first 4 days I did not leave the hotel room as we were closing... Ebs and flows.

 

Varies on the shop, number of junior personnel, deal flow, etc.

At my prior shop (+$1.5B fund), the hours were typically 70-80 per week, with 100+ hours weeks during intense periods of active deals. There is typically more weekend flexibility though, which is nice.

 

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