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Heard the same. Not sure how this affects process as this is the earliest it’s ever been.
Kicked off yesterday, good luck everyone -
Should we be worried if we have not gotten any interviews?
Who all has gone so far? I know Carlyle has started the rounds
Yup. Know multiple places have kicked off. All upper MM and MF names. Could be smaller firms too just haven’t heard of any. Don’t freak out if you don’t have anything set up, many many more yet to begin.
Per GoBuyside e-mail - here's who went out yesterday / today:
Apollo Ares Management Berkshire Partners Blackstone Group Centerbridge FFL Partners Francisco Partners General Atlantic Golden Gate Capital KKR Lindsay Goldberg Pegasus Capital Point 72 Asset Management Searchlight Capital Silver Lake Partners Soros Private Equity Sycamore Partners TPG Capital TPG Growth TPG Sixth Street Vista Equity Partners Warburg Pincus
When are these firms recruiting for? Start dates in 2019?
Yup, Summer 2019.
Shit
Is this for all groups? I.e. KKR, includes KKR TMT etc.?
Why? Thought you were looking at early stage vc?
Thanks!
CD&R as well
Does this include internships?
Confirmed. Sales of our private equity interview course basically confirm this -- always a big surge when invites start going out. This timing is just insanity...the early recruiting trend just continues.
Good luck everyone: PE Interview Course here. Remember, if you're 8 years old, it's usually not too late if you get your act together: learn more.
All major funds have started with some giving out offers already. IPs / candidates will all burn some midnight oil here for next two days.
All major funds have started with some giving out offers already. IPs / candidates will all burn some midnight oil here for next two days.
Anyone know what the London situation is like in terms of when the recruiting starts?
Is the on-cycle recruiting also for first year analysts?
London buyside recruiting works quite differently.
There is no proper recruiting season as it is the case in the US, but it's a lot of ad-hoc hiring. During the first year, you should reach out to recruiters to have initial meetings / coffee chats. Once you are half-way through your second year, recruiters will reach out to you (and conversely you should reach out to those that haven't contacted you) with new roles. Some MF funds start recruiting in August / September for a start in the following summer but loads of others (even also MFs) just recruit throughout the year.
Also, recruiting in London is a bit more "flexible", i.e. those funds will look at Analyst 2, Analyst 3 and Associate 1 for the same entry level Investment Professional role.
Yeah, I can definitely second this in London PE. The shops I've been looking at cast a very wide net. No reason to hire somebody with 6 years of experience when you can hire some smart guy with 2 willing to go all the way...
Word is Francisco went first to make 4 offers and everyone followed. Most will be done by Thursday. Move quickly if you want to interview.
How should I proceed? One shop I want to interview with is represented by one of my HHs -- I assume there I should contact the HH. Another fund I want to interview with is not represented by my HH -- I am thinking there I should look for an introduction and if not, do my best cold email. Thoughts?
Quick bump since it's time sensitive
I would reach out to all headhunters ASAP, and cold email all other firms you are interested in. Nobody will definitely hire or even interview you because you sent a good or bad cold email, but they will certainly NOT hire you if they never know you exist.
Can confirm as well. My much more accomplished and pedigreed younger friends all have offers. I was basically connected all the first year analysts from my school to my older friends at current PE firms or who just finished the process last year. Hit them up, and many are actively intervieweing through final rounds, two got offers, one accepted, the other one is holding out and tripping balls not knowing what to do. This is madness, and PE firms know this. There is some legit candidate arbitrage going on here by some of the funds. There's a couple 22 year olds who are legit contenders for Blackstone and KKR who have offers from upper MM that expire before their BX and KKR interviews happen. What is driving the recruiting date earlier and earlier is the non top 6 funds wanting to get the kids that end up at Apollo/KKR by offering them early, and then everyone is forced to follow.
Wouldn't those kids obviously accept the upper MM offers and still proceed with the process at BX & KKR?
These firms chase young 20-year olds like they're professional athletes. Why are top-tier 24 year olds so desirable to them? Do the kids add that much value? Aren't they just there for two years and then 99% of them have to move on?
Elite finance is becoming like pro sports; you have to be on the right track super early to have a legitimate shot of fulfilling your dreams.
Is the timeline different for consulting candidates? MBB 1st year, been in communication with most of the major headhunters (Amity, CPI, HSP, Oxbridge) but have only received one interview so far (which I'll likely have to turn down as I won't be able to fly to NYC on 5hrs notice)...does anyone know whether upper MM / megafunds usually keep a few spots for consulting candidates during later in the recruiting process?
Interested as well!
Others should chime in, but what I've noticed is that firms would prefer to bring in like roles (e.g., investment team, portfolio team) in one wave if at all possible, so as to minimize the time burden of recruiting. It is sometimes the case that firms will come back to the market to fill roles that they under-forecasted for (or could not fill).
Anecdotally, second-year consultants tend to do better on the market (unless they had prior banking experience). If this recruiting season doesn't work out (and I would encourage openness towards firms in the core middle market), you can always come back to the market next year.
Are PE firms even that willing to hire MBB consultants? Aside from Bain Capital, I don't know what other PE firms hire MBBs without any banking experience.
H&F and Advent do for sure
There are definitely a decent number of shops that hire MBB consultants. I was relatively late to the process and wasn't nearly as proactive as I should have been, but I still received a couple of interviews so far this week with a few megafunds/upper MM in NYC and SF; that said, there are definitely fewer opportunities for us than there are for bankers.
Does anybody have insight on how long it takes after a final round to receive an answer? I finished up a final round last night and haven't heard back yet
Typically pretty fast. I went through two superdays on the Monday it kicked off (this year) - received one offer just past midnight that night which expired at 8am. Apparently the other firm gave out some offers by that same night / morning the next day after I dropped from their process.
Good luck in the process. On to the next one if this one doesn't pan out.
Received an offer on the spot. Remember, PE firms are only going this early as they are concerned that talent will be taken out of the market quickly and they need to find people ASAP. If they want you, they don't want you in the market and to risk having to find another candidate a day later. Even MF are concerned about this as they have as they have their competitors, candidates can be pressured to go to MM, and they have more space to fill.
That is crazy. Kids barely have 6 months of work experience.
Is it even 6 months? If the average analyst starts beginning of August that's only 4....
At this rate, with recruiting moving back a month every year, looks like things will be kicking off next year around Thanksgiving if not earlier.
If any of you were/are economics students, this is a great real-life example of game theory.
more specific to game theory, I would call it Prisoner's Dilemma:
"The prisoner's dilemma is a paradox in decision analysis in which two individuals acting in their own self-interest pursue a course of action that does not result in the ideal outcome. The typical prisoner's dilemma is set up in such a way that both parties choose to protect themselves at the expense of the other participant. As a result of following a purely logical thought process, both participants find themselves in a worse state than if they had cooperated with each other in the decision-making process."
Firms and candidates would be much better off if the process took place a year later, but theyre not willing to wait and see what the other fund does.
This is getting ridiculously early, but I don't see the trend reversing anytime soon.
Prediction: By 2020 we're going to be recruiting in August. Gotta get those banking analysts when they're still in training! You heard it here first.
I think we'll see a more equitable split between year-ahead and same-year recruiting. It is not sustainable to keep progressing earlier in the analyst lifespan.
Back when the process was a March thing you could justify an analyst 'checking out' of his banking job because for all intents and purposes he was halfway through. Now with someone getting less than 20 weeks of deal work (counting training being done in August) before the process kicks off, firms are really taking a flier on 21 or 22-year-olds.
Right now the process for same-year summer-start positions (e.g. Summer 2018 roles that pop up unpredictably in February-April 2018) is entirely ad-hoc.
I think that may standardize somewhat, where the same funds that went out through a formal headhunter process in the first week of December 2017 (nuts!) for Summer 2019 associate intake may three or five years from now be running formalized processes for a Summer 2024 intake in both December 2022 and December 2023.
You get a crack at the usual suspects (top 10 groups on the street that are a predictable source of candidates with a high risk-adjusted likelihood of success as an associate), and a year later you also get a crack at more fully-baked candidates who have 18 months of deal work.
Right now it anecdotally seems like the best funds take 90-100% of their class through this increasingly early process. I wonder (hypothesize / hope) if that ratio changes to 75/25 in the model I outlined above.
Based on the feedback I received from some MFs it sounded like this was already happening a little bit. At least one did not fill their class to take one off-cycle since they didn't feel comfortable filling with candidates who only had a few months of experience (or at least this is what they said to me)
Sanity has to prevail at some point.
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Anyone know if Vestar kicked off yet?
They have
Not sure what I should be doing. Met with most of the headhunters but haven’t received any interviews despite getting positive feedback. Anyone have any tips?
In a top group but non target school with so so stats.
PM'ed you
I have the same question. Would love to hear your thoughts as well.
I also met with most of the headhunters and received positive feedback but haven't received any interviews. do you have any tips or know what's the problem?
Anyone have any information regarding private credit / debt recruiting?
not a standardized practice within those type of shops. they hire on an as need basis, think job offer followed by immediately giving a 2 weeks notice.
Thanks! Is that also the case for big firms like Blackstone GSO, Carlyle GMS, Ares Management Credit, etc.?
Looks like recruiting is extending into next week
PM
Any idea which firms are still looking?
I personally am fine with it going early as I'm looking to lateral funds in the spring/summer and this means there will likely be more seats opening up
Any insight into whether Kelso or Harvest have gone?
Yes and yes. Don’t know if finished, but launched earlier this week
thanks, haven't seen a gobuyside blast since Monday.
Yes and yes. Don’t know if finished, but launched earlier this week
Yep - Kelso finished
Anyone know if the big PE firms in Chicago launched? Primarily looking at MDP, GTCR, BDT.
Can confirm that MDP and GTCR have launched.
Is Carlyle A&D done?
Wondering if Bain cap / HGGC / Parthenon have started too...
Bain Cap kicked off on Monday or Tuesday. There’s a good chance HGGC kicked off this past week as well (I think my friend got a request to interview with them on Wednesday).
In what world would any large fund not launch during PE week? Not trying to be rude, but everyone should be assuming that any sizeable fund participated to some degree in recruiting.
know guys at lower BB's like ubs/db/wells and middle markets like Jeff currently interviewing. Don't know what this means for what smaller funds are going through the process. will report back.
Has anyone heard back from Apax? Knew they gave out one offer last week but seems like radio silence for everyone otherwise
Believe they're resuming their interview processes in January
anyone know which MM firms have not yet recruited?
Bump
Anyone know if it’s okay to email headhunters in change of preferences for firms/investment strategies?
I know it’s not preferred, but found that I wanted to do something different through coffee chats. Thank
Anyone know if it’s okay to email headhunters in change of preferences for firms/investment strategies?
I know it’s not preferred, but found that I wanted to do something different through coffee chats. Thank
.
Who are these firms targeting? College students? or 2-3 year analyst?
Anyone know if LA shops such as Brentwood and Leonard Green are done?
LGP is done
For consultants, I've heard anecdotally that a lot of funds held off on filling all of their slots this month (since a bunch of consultants were caught off guard by the timing)
Most of the major funds (consulting-friendly ones, at least) will be resuming their process at some point next year (mid-January at the earliest), from what I've heard
Out of curiosity, which consultant-friendly funds still have slots left?
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