UPDATE 5/22/14: It's HERE!
So for years I've been trying to get this together and we FINALLY have the right guy to take our current private equity guide and turn it into a full Private Equity Prep package, complete with actual modeling tests from PE firms, actual interview questions received broken down by firm and type of firm and a bunch of other awesome ways to prep (thanks to the WSO Company Database and our own independent research).
Basically, this package will be the must have of anyone trying to break in to PE and prep for their interviews. It will be the best package out there of its kind.
The price for this package is going to be high since we're investing a lot of time and $ into it, so I wanted to see if people would be interested in purchasing a heavily discounted version before it is released. We expect it to be released by the end of February 2014 at the latest, end of January 2014 at the earliest.
This would help some people get the package at a discounted price and help us get some cash in over the next 2 months while it is being developed.
Thoughts?
-Patrick
Kickstarter, WSO style?
I would be interested in the package.
yeah, stay tuned...may announce a 50% off deal for those that buy early.
I"d be interested as well
Hey Patrick,
I'd definitely be interested. However for people that are going to recruit this coming season, the end of Feb. may be a bit late if everything is released at once. Interviews start as early as March, and it would be more valuable to have more than a month with all the resources (which I'm assuming is very comprehensive).
You have teased this so many times and I've been waiting. Yes I am interested.
Also interested.
This sounds awesome. Would buy for sure.
Pretty soon no one is going to be able to get an IB/PE job without having mastered all the WSO guides. WSO is single-handedly raising the bar for finance candidates across the industry. Amazing how different the recruiting landscape was just a few years ago.
Also interested - I was shocked at how much less consolidated prep material seems to be for PE relative to IBD and Consulting.
I might be interested, but still depending on the price and how long the discounted price will last till
I'd totally be interested if I could get it in early January.
Interested - but any way you can add some industry specific stuff? Personally would be interested in energy, but I AM sure there are plenty of people interested in healthcare/tech/etc
not sure we'll be able to incorporate industry specific advice in this version...
Me too
i'd be interested as well
Certainly interested, but I echo the concerns on timing relative to recruiting season.
@CompBanker I know you're a huge fan of this site and have been here forever, but in all frankness, I AM convinced the BIWS guides are better suited to be called the "standard."
+1. Would agree about BIWS being the standard.
Interested in the guides, but if I were a first year analyst buying this stuff (presumably this is your target market?), I'd like some sort of guarantee that what I'm getting is legit. Like, I'd want these case studies to be actual old case studies from megafund and upper-MM PE funds. Stuff that was passed to you guys from people who'd been through the process or from the firms themselves.
All that being said, I think we'd all be willing to pay up for good materials.
yeah, well before we'd even put anything up for sale, even a pre-sale, we'd give a detailed outline and list as many of the materials we know we could put together...
Also, I think BIWS does a great job, but the reality is that they can't compete with the company specific data we have that we are now incorporating into all of the guides...we have thousands of interview insights across thousands of firms...and almost 200 for PE alone. I think having actual questions from actual recent interviews is a game changer -- and since we've released our updated guides, our visitors seem to agree.
So if you thought they were the standard before, I'd definitely give us another look. The customers who supported WSO before and have bought the technical, behavioral and/or networking guides have all had free updates / access to MAJOR improvements over the last 12-24 months (only the beginning)...
Even with all of these improvements, we are still a better deal than BIWS ($99 for IB Prep Pack = Tech, Fit and networking guide, they charge $97 for guide AND $97 for networknig). Also, with the discount you can get to financial modeling training through WSO and Wall Street Prep partnership, that is also a better deal with major improvements also coming to the WSP training in the next few months...
We are upping our game and our services / products while giving an even better value proposition, and I want to thank BIWS for pushing us to get better. We aren't stopping here and people who trust us to keep improving and getting in now will be rewarded. We are still hard at work incorporating better materials and updates as we are able to take the incredible amount of data from the Company Database and organize it in a way that makes the guides the ultimate resource for interview prep. (//www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/big-change-new-wso-technical-and-behavio…)
-Patrick
please see my response to LBJ above :-)
Also, I'm not aware of any great resource to prep for PE interviews... we've seen a few, but most aren't excellent or fully comprehensive.
I am confident everyone here will be very impressed with what we publish.
Thanks, Patrick
Looking forward to the details Patrick. I'm excited as I'm sure others are.
Question: Would you say that you had good success with the current PE guide, or not as you had hoped? In your honest assessment, what are the Pros/Cons of the current guide and what are you looking to improve upon it? Would you say the buyers were satisfied, or looking for perhaps more?
The current guide has been successful, however, it is really primarily more of a primer on how to position yourself for PE recruiting, NOT a detailed interview guide (which is clear if you read the description). No modeling tests, no actual interview questions organized by fund/fund size or type from our Company Database, etc...
It has been hard to find the right author that has enough time -- lucky for us the current author of the original guide finally has enough time since he is at HBS (and we were able to reach a deal where I am fronting a lot of royalties to get it done because I'm confident that the demand will be there for a great resource).
This guy is in no joke and is probably one of the best people on the planet to put these materials together : he personally interviewed with over 3 dozen PE shops and received 8 offers including several brand name funds across the full spectrum of the industry (2 megafunds, 1 mid market, 2 lower mid market, 1 Growth Equity, 1 VC)...and that is not including all of the ties he currently has to other associates across PE funds.
Stay tuned, we'll have more to release hopefully in a few weeks...
Thanks, Patrick
Sure. I will say that you guys are clearly dedicated to continually improving your products and this site as a whole. You are accessible, transparent, communicative, and candid. That's more than I can say for just about any boss or manager anywhere.
I haven't seen your new WSO guides. I simply remember from years back, looking at the WSO guides (behavioral and technical) vs. the BIWS guide (behavioral and technical came together as "400 investment banking interview Questions You Need to Know" or something similar) ... I chose the BIWS guides and was happier. After getting offers and having friends ask for help, I looked for material to send them and glanced through the WSO one. It was not as in-depth technically, and that is what my comment was based off of.
What you are outlining with the PE resource seems like a tremendous idea, and as I said, pending timing, I am very interested.
I'd potentially be willing to buy early as well, depending on the price
I would be interested in this as well...Just out of curiousity, what kind of price are we looking at for this?
Preliminary indications on pricing? I would potentially be interested
Definitely interested in this
when can we order this?
the timing and pricing hasn't been set yet. If we do launch a discounted pre-sale, it would be after we have a very detailed outline so that you guys know what to expect...
Will you ever do a similar guide for hedgefunds as well?
I would definitely consider it, but would need to find the right author that could tackle it properly. hedge fund interviews are a bit harder to tame (at least in a guide) because there tends to be a wider variety of types of funds and a wider variety of interview experiences as a result.
If you have examples of other resources you think could be improved upon, then feel free to PM me more specifics on what you are thinking and I can put some time into a search for someone to take this on.
Thanks, Patrick
definitely interested in the pre-sale, Good luck!
I'm definitely interested in purchasing the PE prep pack for a discounted price. Appreciate all the help!
To be honest, the "actual questions" is a marketing gimmick. The BIWS guide already covers almost everything you would be asked in an "actual interview."
The WSO guides are good, but BIWS is superior, though more expensive.
That said, I would be interested in a (discounted) PE guide.
how is it a marketing gimmick if they are actual questions from actual interviews?
if you're saying that's not valuable then I think you might be crazy, but you're entitled to your opinion...
I know I would have killed to know what Rothschild was more likely to ask me before going into my superdays. How could you call real questions a gimmick and not call the inflated "400 question" number a gimmick than BIWS throws out.
If you're a first year and went through the interview process, both you and I know that there are probably a core set of ~100-200 questions you need to know on the technical and fit side...value add is knowing the tendencies across firms, not including every possible esoteric question under the sun and throwing out a big #...THAT is a gimmick, not what we do :-)
Besides, if we haven't already, we will likely pass the "400" number anyways very soon with all the additional firm and position specific questions we're adding to the appendices every week.
Look, nothing against BIWS and his guide is great for prep (obviously it helped you). Not sure when you saw the latest versions of WSO, but
1 our current version is structured better to actually learn
2 We now have MORE questions than BIWS and
3 we'll only continue to improve these resources with all the great information the community is able to share in the Company Database.
...just not going to sit back and let you call something a gimmick when it's a clear distinct advantage to the WSO interview guides.
Now that we have that out of the way, I'm happy to hear you'll be interested in the PE Prep as well...it should be very solid and will also include a lot of firm specific questions (again, if you were going to go interview at XYZ fund and could know what was recently asked to other candidates, this wouldnt be valuable info to you?!?)
Thanks, Patrick
I hope you're screening the Company Database because it's largely lackluster. By forcing people to submit information into the database before they can use it, you have lots of people fabricating their stories, reviews, compensation, etc.
lol, work for BIWS much? intern? Interesting how such a new user has such a biased opinion against WSO and for BIWS...how odd.
Anyway, yes, we screen every single submission and auto-ban any users that are submitting fake information (this is probably 1-2 submissions every day out of 40-50 and it's very easy to spot since 99% of the time they are new users). We also have 3rd party sources (ie my network) verifying the authenticty of the submissions we are getting for sense-checks to make sure that the entries make sense.
Anything else? Tell Brian I say hi.
That said, there's still lots of good information in the database that was previously unavailable to the public.
interesting you have that opinion since you don't even have access to the database on your account...again, all very suspicious.
if it's on another username feel free to PM me and I'll check that one, Otherwise, you might want to refrain from commenting on products/services you've never used to mislead people.
Thanks, Patrick
interested as well
definitely interested
I would purchase this in a heartbeat.
hey guys, so I had a call with the author last night and given the circumstances, we aren't going to be able to deliver this in the expected time frame that some of you requested in the comments above. That being said, we are still marching forward to produce the best PE interview Prep package on the market. It just might take us until April / May 2014 before we are ready to release the full version to the world.
I know this is too late for most of you in standard recruiting cycles, and for that I want to apologize. We want to make sure that the product is extremely thorough and is the absolute best resource possible. If we are able to release a part of it in say February or March that I think could be helpful to some of you as a stand-alone, then we'll try our best to do that and I'll personally reach out to any of you that posted in here if/when that becomes available.
I just wanted to update the thread and let you guys know that our new estimate for full final release is late April to early May.
Thanks, Patrick
would be interested in for the standalone feb edition
would be interested in for the standalone feb edition as well
I would definitely support this and also purchase early.
Same for the February version
interested in discounted version
Interested - would purchase early.
Would be interested in the pre-sale! Please send me some details.
Interested as we'll. thanks Patrick, you've helped us all more than you even know and appreciate this website more and more each step I take further into my career n recruiting
I am interested as well, thanks for your hard work
Very interested and would purchase! This may have been answered but if we purchase the discounted version containing less detail, what would be the deal in getting the full version?
Thanks!
Any chance you could create a mailing list that would be emailed once the full package becomes available?
Interested in this as well
Do you have specific date to release it ?? Also I Would be interested in the pre-sale! Please send me some details.
I'm interested in buying the package in whatever state it's currently in as well
hey guys, we are hard at work and we don't anticipate any presale at the earliest at the end of February...the full publication should be available by mid May
@"ahmedzezoon", @"leigh", @"PYRGK"
I might be interested, thanks
Hi Patrick,
I would definitely be interested to receive the Beta version as soon as possible. I have a PE interview coming up and I am trying to prepare my best. I will also let you know what questions they asked me in specific.
Thanks
Hi Patrick, I was wondering if I could purchase the current version of the PE guide and then later received the completed version?
We are working hard to try and have a beta version by the end of this month...thanks for your patience
@"WallStreetOasis.com"
Pat do you have an idea of a price on this package yet?
Ok guys, we have an update!
If you posted in this thread, you were potentially interested in the new Private Equity Prep package that is due to come out in late May 2014. Many of you have asked us to do a pre-release with anything we currently have to date...in other words, a "beta" version. In response, we've decided to make a discounted beta version available to a small subset of people (capped at 20) that are willing to give us some feedback and help us make it better.
With that in mind, if you're interested in getting this discounted version ($199 vs. $299 = saves you $100...plus, you'll get the full version when it comes out in May without paying any more), please send the answers to the following questions to WallStreetOasis.com>[email protected] so we can select the 20 people for the beta version (which will be sent out on March 10, 2014):
Please title the subject of your e-mail to me "PE interview Prep Pack Beta Answers"....I will also shoot a PM to all of those that posted in this thread so you don't miss this.
Thanks! Patrick
ps - here is the author bio: Daniel Sheyner has worked as a Private Equity investment professional for four years, the most recent three years at Bain Capital Partners in Boston, MA. Prior to Bain Capital he spent one year at Fidelity Equity Partners, a middle market growth-LBO fund. Prior to private equity, Daniel worked for three years as a management consultant with Oliver Wyman. He is a graduate of the Math Methods in Social Sciences (MMSS) program at Northwestern University and is currently an MBA student in Harvard Business School’s (HBS) class of 2014.
Daniel’s industry expertise stems from his years as a pre-MBA Associate, study of the industry at HBS, and over a hundred interviews with dozens of PE firms of various types and sizes.
ROUGH DRAFT Beta TOC:
DRAFT TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 2 TESTIMONIALS [TO COME] 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER 1: INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 8 INDUSTRY STRUCTURE 9 BRIEF INDUSTRY HISTORY 10 Origin (1946 – 1950s) 10 Early Growth Stage (1950s – 1981) 10 The first boom and bust (1982 – 1992) 11 The second boom and bust (1993 – 2002) 13 The third boom and bust (2003 – 2009) 14 Recovery and The Industry’s Future (2010 – ) 16 FUNDRAISING & DEAL VOLUME 18 PE DEAL TYPES 19 PE FIRM TYPES 20 Dimension 1: Fund size 20 Dimension 2: Deal Stage 20 Dimension 3: Vertical Focus 22 Dimension 4: Geographic Focus 22 Dimension 5: Diligence Philosophy 22 FUND ECONOMICS 24 Illustrative Fund Economics Example 25 TITLES AND ROLES 26 Analyst 26 Associate 26 Senior Associate / Vice President (VP) 27 Vice President (VP) / Principal 27 Partner / Managing Director (MD) 28 Non-Investment Professionals 28 COMPENSATION 29 CHAPTER 2: INDUSTRY OPERATIONS 30 DEAL PROCESS 31 Source deal 31 Review teaser & Sign NDA to get full CIM 31 Review CIM and submit IOI 32 data room review and “triage” diligence 32 Deep diligence and proffer of an LOI 33 Closing 33 DEAL SELECTION 34 DEAL FUNNEL 36 DEAL LIFECYCLE 37 COMMON DILIGENCE TOPICS 38 Commercial Diligence 38 Valuation Diligence 39 Accounting Diligence 40 Legal Diligence 41 HOW PE MAKES MONEY 42 Strategy #1: Buy Cheap 42 Strategy #2: Financial Engineering 42 Strategy #3: Improve Operations 43 Strategy #4: Exit Right 43 CHAPTER 3: RECRUITING OVERVIEW 44 COMMON PE CAREER PATHS 45 HOW TO BUILD A PE BACKGROUND 46 High School Students 46 Undergraduate Students 48 Pre-MBA Investment Bankers 54 Pre-MBA Management Consultants 55 Other Pre-MBA Backgrounds 56 MBA Students with Prior PE Experience 57 MBA Students without Prior PE Experience 58 RECRUITING CYCLE 59 Pre-MBA 59 Post-MBA 61 HOW TO WORK WITH RECRUITERS 63 What do recruiters do? 63 How do recruiting firms differ? 63 Whose side are recruiters on? 64 Should I work with recruiters? 64 How do I contact recruiters? 64 How do I get the most out of recruiters? 66 HOW TO CHOOSE AN OFFER 68 Topic 1: Upward mobility 68 Topic 2: Job Security 69 Topic 3: Exit Opportunities 70 How do I evaluate these topics? 72 HOW TO WRITE YOUR RESUME 73 What your CV Must Say About You 73 CV Tips 74 Standard PE Resume Template 75 CHAPTER 4: INTERVIEW PREPARATION 76 INTERVIEW PROCESS 77 Phone Screen 77 Early Rounds 77 Modeling Test 78 Late / Decision Rounds 78 WHAT IS AN LBO 79 INCOME STATEMENT OVERVIEW 80 BALANCE SHEET OVERVIEW 83 CASH FLOW STATEMENT OVERVIEW 84 FINANCIAL STATEMENT CONNECTIONS 87 Income Statement and Cash Flow Statement Links 88 Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement Links 89 CAPITAL STRUCTURE 90 Equity 90 Debt 91 LBO Capital Hierarchy 92 Covenants 93 COMMON VALUATION TECHNIQUES 94 Comparable Multiples 94 precedent transactions 96 Market Value 97 lbo model 97 Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) 98 Sum-of-the-Parts 99 COMMON CALCULATIONS 100 Total Enterprise Value (TEV) 100 Free Cash Flow (FCF) 100 Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) 101 Cost of Equity (Via CAPM) 101 Net Working Capital (NWC) 102 Change in NWC 103 Calculating Returns (IRR & MoM) 103 Terminal Value (TV) 105 Debt Coverage and Leverage Ratios 106 TOP 30 TECHNICAL QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 107 FIT QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 121 Ten personal attributes PE firms covet 121 Top 15 Fit Questions & Answers 123 TOP 10 brainteaser QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 125 case questions & APPROACHES 130 MISCELLANEOUS TIPS 131 CHAPTER 5: LBO MODELING TBD LBO Modeling Overview - LBO Model Overview o Incl. breakdown of all relevant modeling steps - How to do a “paper LBO” - How to project IS, BS, CFS, NWC, etc. - Debt schedule breakdown - Depreciation table breakdown - Circular references - Balance sheet adjustments - Etc.
Sample Modeling Tests and Solutions - 2-3 sample modeling tests with solutions
APPENDIX TBD - 100 – 200 real-life interview questions from actual funds - Various Industry Statistics o # Funds o Largest funds by location/AUM/focus o Returns o Etc. - Top targets for IB/consulting & PE recruiting table - Books and other resources for deeper dives into specific subjects - Useful blogs - Illustrative / famous deals - Glossary - Post 3-5 sample CVs from different backgrounds - Modeling hot keys
I'd definitely be interested in buying
Looks great - definitely would be interested in buying.
Nice! Looking forward to the guide.
I am interested in the guide as well.
Mark me down as very interested
I would be interested in a beta version. Please send me the details.
please read my comment about ~4 comments up from yours if you want a beta version...a few spots left :-)
Definitely interested! Let me know!
Extremely interested :) Good luck everyone~
Mos def, bring it on. Very interested.
I am interested in the beta version. Let me know what I have to do.
please read my comments above...
I am under-qualified to give meaningful feedback on the content in the beta. However, I am interested in pre-purchasing the guide at a discount (like you mentioned in the original post) for whenever it comes out.
Same here
Hey guys! Just wanted to give an update in this thread again...by 5:00pm EST today I will be sending a beta version of the private equity prep interview pack (that they got for a discounted price of $199 vs $299) to the members we selected.
They will be providing more feedback to us in the next month and we expect to have a close to final version for release in May 2014.
Thank you all to that have applied and thank you in advance to our beta users...we're very excited to get your feedback and improve it even more! I haven't decided when we may start selling a discounted version for those that pre-pay ($249 vs. $299 launch price), but if there is enough interest I will definitely consider getting that up and announced as well this week.
Stay Tuned! Patrick
Lucky enough to have read this already. Not gonna spoil anything, but I guess it's gonna set a new standard. Patrick, any plan for sth similar for HFs?
Any feedback thus far on the beta version?
amazing feedback...about to announce a pre-sale for $50 off.. @"powpow"
Definitely interested
Also interested. Have recently bought your LBO modelling package, which seems to be a bit dated. Comprehensive PE prep guide would be highly valued and I'd be willing to pay up.
Would be interested in a discounted pre-pay version.
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