Post MBA PE Recruiting Advice

Black Jack,

Congrats! Your MBA program should have a private equity club. If you reach out to the leaders of the clubs, they should be able to give you VERY in depth answers to all of these questions, catered to your particular school. I imagine they will be far more helpful given your personal circumstances than the folks here, myself included. That said, here is my quick attempt to at least point you in the right direction based on my experience at Booth.

BlackJack:

How does the recruiting work? I know a few firms do OCR at basically HBS but it seems like a lot of others basically do job postings at the top 5 or so schools. The recruiting seems much less structured as compared to IB / Consulting, so what is the best way to go about approaching firms and landing one of these roles?

You're correct, it is unstructured (I believe HBS and Stanford have more structure to them though). Job posts will appear throughout the year, with the majority appearing in the Spring. I know many of my classmates were successful by just cold emailing alumni at PE firms they were interested in. There were also all sorts of campus activities, such as trips to SF/NYC/BOS to meet with PE firms, that enabled you to network with new firms. Booth has an annual PE conference, a venture capital / startup program, opportunities to internship during the school year for credit, and other things as well. Many, many touch points exist, but it is up to you to convert them into opportunities...

BlackJack:

Which firms have summer associate / vp roles? I would assume mainly the largest firms and that the other firms with smaller teams are more geared toward FT recruiting?

I saw a whole mix. Lots of middle market firms from my experience. Every now and then I'd see something from a megafund or UMM fund, but not typical.

BlackJack:

Are there spots available for individuals who have not worked at the specific firm, or what percentage (approx) of associates head back to the same firm post MBA?

Interestingly enough, there were a small number of firms that offered internship programs but only recruited their pre-MBA associates back for full time positions. Overall, the majority of people in my class who went into PE went into new firms rather than rejoining a prior firm.

BlackJack:

How do the interviews work for both summer and FT roles? I would assume the interviewing would be more geared toward investment thesis, communication and softer skills vs. technicals as might be done for associate recruiting?

Massively firm dependent, but expect technicals as well. Soft skills are far more important in post-MBA interviews vs. what you probably went through for banking/pre-MBA PE, but don't be surprised if you're asked to do a model or explain accounting concepts. Pretty much everything is fair game.