I'm currently prepping for on-cycle PE recruiting and I'm wondering how I should prioritize the various areas of recruiting prep. For example, each of the following items have been stressed as important in other posts on WSO:
LBO modeling and case study practice
Technical questions (PE, accounting, valuation, etc.)
Behavioral/fit questions
PE industry and firm-specific knowledge/research (industry trends, major deals, etc.)
General markets and sector knowledge (drivers, trends, typical margins and multiples, Porter's 5 forces for your typical stock sectors)
LBO/stock pitches
I've done a decent amount of prep over the past month or so (gone through the full WSO guide, for example) but now that I've started full-time in IB, I have less time to allocate to recruiting prep. What are your recommendations on how to best spend time and energy over the next month or two?
Not sure why it's showing up weirdly with all the links and annotations but hopefully you guys get the gist of what I'm trying to say. If not let me know I can try to fix it
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@anon7991 Mind reposting the links? Bit hard to read.
Figured out how to fix it. Apparently you cannot use dashes as bulletpoints in a WSO post
I'm just someone in your boat (incoming recruit) but don't think there will be a clear answer to this no? It's going to be up to you to figure out what you're stronger/weaker at and prioritize accordingly
So for me, I'm a MBB consultant, I'm clueless when it comes to LBOs so spending a ton of time and overindexing there. I'm good at structuring and frameworks, so de-prioritizing case studies/pitches portion. Ultimately though, my goal is to be 100% there for all of the items and 110% for the ones i'm weaker at to really maximize my odds
Yeah I get what you're saying man and of course the goal is to be 100% in everything. But realistically with an IB workload that's gonna be tough. So I guess my question is more what's most common/relevant in interviews. Like how often do you actually do stock or LBO pitches? How much emphasis is on technicals vs behaviorals? What's more common, the simplified LBO or full 3-statement model? Stuff like that
In true consultant fashion, it depends. It sounds like you're looking for a silver bullet answer to depriortize something and unfortunately, I just don't think there is.
Some funds prioritize certain aspects over. Think a Bain Cap on case studies vs. KKR on modeling is probably two very good extremes. So that could be one approach, which is narrow down exactly the type of funds you want and only gun for interviews at them. But again, from what I gather, recruiting sounds like a crapshoot, everyone's experiences, even at the same fund, varies. So the worst feeling would be to waltz into an interview, get hit with the part you're most uncomfortable with, and wish you had put more time in
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No one is gonna expect u to know “typical margins” for random sectors. Focus on model and investment case and why pe/ this fund. Aka the guides
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One big thing you’re missing - talking about the deals you’ve worked on, your role and whether or not you think they’d be good private equity investments
Yeah this is one of the aspects I'm most worried about if recruiting kicks off in early September again. At that point I'll have only been on the desk for a few weeks. As an intern I worked on a couple deals that didn't close and mainly just formatted PPT slides. I assume most people recruiting as 1st year analysts will be in the same boat. What do you think PE firms will think of this lack of deal experience?
They'll know you haven't been too deep in the weeds in terms of responsibilities, but you should still have a fully-formed opinion on the deal, the financials, investment highlights (from an investor's standpoint, do NOT regurgitate the CIM's highlights), as well as the risks and potential mitigants.
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