MF PE Associate Class Size
Does anyone know how big each class size is at megafunds? Obviously this varies a lot but just looking for a ballpark approximation
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Depends on the fund I'd say mean is like 10 new hires though... pretty competitive
Wanna know a secret though? If you are going to make the cut... it doesn't matter. I like to keep the mindset that there only needs to be 1 - for me. Tom Brady style.
10 for the entire fund or only one division?
Way less than 10. I’d call it closer to 5
5 is waayy too low for a MF. even 10 seemed low to me
Lol what fund hires ten associates. I would love to do that
Here’s an actual stat from a MF. This is only for North America and the PE strategy (ignores credit, etc).
7 incoming associates
Just to confirm, this is across groups not just one group correct?
Yes, across all groups. Some groups are 7 people total so would be crazy to have that many associates in any given group (usually 3-4 total across associate class years)
$10bn+ funds typically hire between 6-12 associates per year. Some funds are lean to their fund size (LGP) while others have larger associate classes (TPG, Carlyle).
Fuck. So getting a gig at a MF/UMM is much harder than I thought
Sink or swim mentality. You can do it.
Just to offer another data point, also work at a MF and our associate class this year was 6 (across all verticals, we are a generalist platform). However, 3 of those were A2As, so 3 hires out of banking
Do you know any associates that went to a non target ug? I don't think I have a shot even though I am working at a EB.
While very uncommon at my firm (can’t think of another example), this year one of the six came from the background you were describing - non-target from an EB. So while difficult, it is possible (or at least it has happened in the past)
UMM, 7 ASOs
I hate to break it to you guys, but all of the responses above seem a little wrong... let's take Advent for example. Advent is by definition a mega fund. Their latest raise was $17.5bn for their flagship fund. Per the website, they employ 235 investment professionals in 14 offices around the world. Of those investment professionals, 78 are associates (I counted). 78 / 3 years as an associate (Advent doesn't have a Senior Associate title) = 26 per class. This seems more accurate to me.
As you noted, that includes all offices / regions globally for Advent (North America, Latin America, EMEA, and APAC). Most people will just be interviewing for one region and would thus be looking at the class size for their region, so you'd take that 26 and divide by 4, getting you to 6.5 / year per region, which is in line with other people's responses
Those numbers make sense globally. In the US Advent hires approx 10 associates each year so they have approx. 30 associates
I think all the guys above were talking US only, so this falls in-line with that 6-12 range
Alright, sure. I'll take your regional point (but note that some of these are tiny offices.. US is probably 70% of investment professionals), and also add that Advent has 750 employees, so ~1/3 are investment professionals. I'm not going to count them, but BX has 4k employees (sure not all of them work in PE, but maybe 1000 do? That's like ~350 associates), Carlyle has 2k (175 associates), Apollo, 2k (175), TPG 1,500 (150), KKR 2k (175)... my point is all of these funds are 2.5x+ Advent. I guess it varies by fund, but some MFs definitely have 10+ associates who are working in PE per class in the US.
Working at one of the places you mention above, right now there are ~21 associates in North American focused PE across all years (i.e. ~7 per class)
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