So I have a sound understanding of why I want to transition to PE. I also understand the differences between various strategies - traditional buyout funds, growth equity, secondaries, FoF, mezzanine - well enough to speak convincingly about why I would or wouldn't like to work in each one.
However, I am much less confident about explaining why I want to work at a specific firm. How does one answer in a way that avoids the contrived, banal explanations that typically accompany ib interview answers?
i.e. "I'd love to work for your bank because of the culture, lean deal teams, independent advisory (no balance sheet to lead with), expansion into XXX area....blah blah blah"
Like, all PE funds plaster their operational expertise and "extensive network of executive partners" on the home page of their websites or highlight their focus on companies with strong records of performance, highly recurring revenue streams, competitive advantage, etc.....
How do you truly find out what makes a fund unique, what their investment approach is, how many deals they have in the pipeline, etc.? I feel like these are difficult to gauge, unless one works on a transaction involving said fund.
Or is this mostly a check the box question, one in which you are really just expected to "say what they want to hear", leaving it up to other parts of the interview to provide the differentiating Wow factor as a candidate?
Interested to hear what other people say about finding out firm specifics, although if you have a friend that works there you can probe them. I think with the 'why do you want to work here' questions, it tends to come down to whether they perceive genuine enthusiasm when you answer. It's more of a litmus test.
yeah, i suppose asking a current associate would be the move.
Hate these questions.
Why do I want to work for your firm? "Well because I'm really passionate about not starving to death, give me a job."
fuck, beat me to it.
"I've always had a passion for being able to move out of my parents' basement and buying liquor for myself."
"I've always wanted to pay taxes and then complain about them so I can join the republican party."
"ever since I got a callback from you and not the other 5 firms I applied to, I knew this was a match made in employment."
haha great stuff +1sb
Similar to when eager college kids ask you why you joined your current bank.
"Uh....well a couple reasons. Besides the great culture, they were also the only offer I got"
Do some digging on the firm, look at recent deals they've done. You should be able to come up with numerous reasons why. And you should have some, we have dinged ppl in the past because it didn't seem like they were "that interested". You don't have to get as granular as you're looking for above, we all know that everyone is kinda doing the same thing anyway. No one is expecting you to hit on the "secret sauce", because in all honesty, that is all BS anyway.
Just cycle through a few of the above and you will be fine.
Appreciate the input man.
Good to know that there's no "secret sauce" - I always suspected it was a just-don't-screw-it-up type question that adequate background research should satisfy.
Wholeheartedly agree with this. Additionally many funds will have nuances which if you can highlight will differentiate you as a candidate, whether that is the approach to funding, the fund structure, the approach to PortCo management, approach to sourcing, approach to processes etc.
To add to this, it is also important how you frame it.
I was in one process (fortunately not the fund I'm at now, but wanted to get an offer to expedite my preferred one) with a fund who had not raised a new fund and was only able to do deals on a deal by deal basis. I went with: "I think the deal by deal approach is superior in competitive markets such as these as it encourages a more proactive sourcing and origination approach, rather than overpaying in increasingly competitive markets, resulting in superior returns to competitors with a more traditional structure". I received an offer which I turned down.
I think m8 pretty much nailed it. This should be a pretty easy answer that just shows you at least have a decent idea of what the firm is about at a high-level (what they share on their website). A few more potential things to mention below:
To me this question always just checked to see if 1. you've done your homework on the firm background in terms of deals, how they invest, firm culture, etc 2. If you've spoken with current employees or talked to people that have knowledge of the firm you can name drop. If there are any differentiating factors about the firm too, those would come up in point 1. For example if firm states how operationally focused they are, bring that up and then try and have an anecdote about how when you talked to xyz associate you really liked that associates continued to work with portcos post acquisition ... blah blah
If you know anyone who works on the debt side of PE funds (f.i. a Leveraged finance group at a BB) they might know or at least plausibly know people at PE funds. When I interned in LevFin at a BB the bankers all often worked with PEs and had opinions about which groups are good and which groups aren't. This proved to be really useful when they tried to move to the Buy-side because they could always say "many PE funds claim to be X (really operational/financially oriented etc.) but I can tell from my/my colleagues' experience dealing with your firm that you truly excel at X".
If you know someone at a BB that has worked with PE's, it might be interesting to see if you can use something positive they said about the PE you are interviewing with as an anecdote.
"I swiped right and it was a match."
Come to think about it, there should be Tinder for WS employees. You open the app and you have opened positions from various firms appearing one by one. Swipe right to send your CV, swipe left if this is not prestigious enough, Super like to send a fruit basket to MD.
Honestly, most of the firms I interviewed with never even asked, because they're all so arrogant they assume "Duh - of course he wants to work here"
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