private equity

Mod Note: Each day we'll be posting the top WSO forum posts of 2014. This one was originally posted on 2/27/14 and ranks #8 for the year by total silver banana count. You can see all our top ranked content here. Mine is a story with various parts; you can find details on my life as a Big 4 auditor...

23 Nov 2020

Hey WSO: I wanted to get a second opinion on my next potential career move. Personal background: Graduated from top target 2 years ago, went to a megafund (BX / KKR / Carlyle) out of college, been here since. Right now I work with top tier talent on smart deals, and make decent bank...but I just...

29 Jul 2020

Currently an analyst with approx 6 months left on OPT. What happens to international students who don't get the h1-b visa? Are firms generally good with transferring people to other offices (assuming it's an EB/BB)? Also interested to hear if internationals in the US have been able to exit into...

28 Apr 2020

With PE on-cycle coming up I thought it'd be a good time to have a discussion on the Pros and Cons of Growth Buy-out vs. Value Buy-out Private Equity from an Associate perspective. I'm trying to hear some people's perspectives on which style of Buy-out firm they'd prefer to work for. I'm...

20 May 2020

Hi everyone! I've really enjoyed the community here at WSO and the fantastic insights and advice people have shared over the years, so thought I'd give back and share my non-traditional experience. My Background: Target school, liberal arts major. Interned at a BB IBD my junior summer, and went...

17 Jun 2019

To give a bit of background, I recently landed an associate gig at a pretty respectable PE shop ($5 bill aum) in the Chicago area (after 2 years of banking). I started about a month ago after packing up and moving my whole life from California. Well needless to say we had a company outing and I got...

05 Aug 2019

Hi, I will be a freshman in college in September (in Europe). Since I want to break into the industry I have spent my time reading books, learning about business models, and reading 10Ks. After reading Valuation by McKinsey and doing a modeling course I am capable of creating what I think are decent...

22 Apr 2020

Background Private Equity Infrastructure Funds, Secondaries and Co-investments Experience in Institutional Asset Management & Investment Research (Mutual funds) CFA Completed | European Financial Advisor Charterholder Excel financial modelling (VBA) Telecom & Financial Services Managerial experience...

15 May 2019

About I have been a longtime WSO reader (6-7 years) and some years down the track, I thought it would be helpful to do a quick Q&A I think this could be helpful in particular for (i) those looking to switch over from credit to equity investing, (ii) those interested in mezzanine / sub debt, and...

18 Oct 2019

Hey monkeys, I am doing an LBO model and the company has a fairly significant amount of leases as a result of IFRS 16 accounting. The leases should be included in EV and net debt. As the leases will be rolled over, how do I take this into account in the model? It is included in EV so it is included...

14 Jul 2020

Disclaimer This post isn't meant to be a salty venting, but more of a sharing some of my self-realizations from the past year on things that I wish I had fully understood 12 months ago. "Congrats on closing your deal!" "You were a rockstar on this one – we couldn't have done it without you!" "You...

31 Dec 2017

WSO Community, I wanted to take the opportunity to leverage my experience to be helpful with a Q&A. By way of background, I attended a state school, broke into MM IB as an analyst, left banking to work at multiple private equity firms, then returned to banking. Currently, I'm a VP at the MM IB firm...

26 Jan 2019

GS/MS/JPM Investment Banking SA to MM PE Buyout Analyst (~$2Bn Fund) Been a lurker on WSO for a while now so thought I'd give back to the community and answer any questions about starting in PE as an analyst, hours, nature of work etc

04 Oct 2019

When you go through the interview process with private equity firms, particularly if you move along in a process at a middle market PE shop, you will almost certainly be asked to do a case study. 
 
 Guide to the Private Equity Interview Case Study
 
 So, just what is the PE case...

25 Mar 2018

Hi all, I currently buy distressed properties and renovate them to hold or sell, backed by 2 investors I know personally (the only people I know with money, 1 family, 1 family friend). I have been looking into what I believe is classed as micro private equity, doing the same thing I am doing with...

06 May 2020

After working on two deals as a fundless sponsor, and seeing the booming interest in the SMB space I've been tinkering with a new project. A crowdfunding platform to raise LP funds for typical LMM PE deals. The platform could allow syndicators (or fundless sponsors) to bring deals to the table, and...

02 Aug 2020

I've been looking into the Private Equity Group within GS AIMS recently (saw a posting a few weeks ago) and noticed a lot of former analysts were able to exit into PE buyout shops, despite the group doing primaries / secondaries / co-investments, rather than LBOs. Would anyone have insight into why...

05 Aug 2019

Hi all, I've been looking around WSO for a while now but haven't gotten around to posting anything substantial/giving back. I'm doing a Q&A for the next two weeks give or take to answer questions/thoughts you might have. Hopefully I can help despite my limited background, given the seeming lack of...

23 Dec 2018

Guys & Gals, Headhunters, recruiters, executive search firms: For many of us they hold they keys to the golden gates of buy-side badassery (i swear i'm not really this big of a tool in real life). I'm calling on all of you to please reply back with names of active PE recruiter firms I have missed....

22 Jul 2018

Maybe I'm just cynical, but at my MM, we have rarely seen family offices compete for deals in auctions and it seems there are more and more being formed weekly, if not daily. I'm astounded at how much capital is now going into the market to try and compete with traditional PE and strategics,...

12 Dec 2018

I'm a Senior Associate at a MM PE fund in my mid-20s. I enjoy what I do, but want to try something different. I've had an entrepreneurship bug as far back as I can remember, so this would be the most logical place to jump, for me. Chances are I'll fail. I'm quite realistic about the probabilities of...

10 Dec 2018

Hello WSO, I have been a long time lurker, and this is my first post (or maybe I am one of the top rated authors who decided to make a post anonymously). I have noticed a certain lack of information about infrastructure investing on WSO, and those threads that are created from time to time, are long...

02 Jan 2017

Want to get peoples thoughts on this and see where some may agree or disagree. Essentially I have this belief from talking to clients over the past couple weeks. The private equity market has gotten so large and private equity backed companies make up such a large percentage of our economy. So as...

11 Mar 2020

Is it feasible to recruit for NY MF/UMM PE from a top bank in LA (Moelis/CS/Barclays)? I have heard it is less common given all of the PE opportunities in LA, but does anyone know if it's possible?

19 Jul 2020

Hello all, Long time lurker and first time poster. I just wanted to share how much WSO has helped me. 4 Years ago I was a no-name at a no-name university and had nearly failed out of High-school. I decided one day to sit down and change my life (after receiving a LOUD wake-up call). So, I did what...

14 Apr 2018

Hello everyone, A bit of context: * I am Part of a new HF with small sized but very experienced people. in Hong Kong * We are currently not active in private equity, but we are open to opportunities. Thus no clear framework * We had a terrible year in 2018, no bonus. Some senior partners left. But...

20 Dec 2019

1. Why not just try to start with a PE firm? There are PE firms that hire juniors out of undergrad. However, this 99.99% of the time is in a sub-associate role. In other words, you would be junior to me. I'm only pointing this out because I don't want you to think that a person out of undergrad is...

26 Dec 2016

Hey All, Peers and friends from college have been talking about studying for GMAT / applying to B-School. Currently a 2nd year IB analyst in M&A and thinking about future. As someone who will have paid off close to 100k in undergrad loans (on track to pay off in another ~2 years), I cannot seem to...

08 Oct 2019

This question pops up in almost every private equity interview. It's not something that will land you the job, but the wrong answer will get you dinged. Why Private Equity Career? This section is to shed some light on private equity as a career. For information on answering the interview question...

18 Feb 2018

There's a perception of people on the street that private equity is the cream of the crop. The hours, the pay, the beloved carry, the work itself - is it all greener grass syndrome? Not quite, private equity is pretty awesome by most standards; that's why becoming a private equity associate is ten...

30 Jun 2016

Hi All, Was digging through the forum archives and haven't found anything good about how to talk to lenders from a PE perspective. I was wondering for those who have had a decent amount of time in the diligence process, what are some tips / tricks you use when speaking through an investment and...

31 Oct 2019

I can't answer if PE is the best job in the world but I can offer a little outside perspective that some may be interested in. Having spent the better part of the last decade in SEAL Teams and other specialized units, I found Seabird's initial post slightly amusing. If you'll humor me, I'll provide...

13 Jun 2016

I currently work at a PE Fund and will begin having significant capital calls as we deploy the fund. We don't have a capital line in place for members of the fund to fund their capital commitment with, so I was wondering if anyone here knows of any banks that establish personal capital call lines...

24 May 2020

Hello friends, several recruiting firms have reached out to me about what seem like unique roles at PE firms. The titles have been "Strategy Associate". They are basically pitched as a mix of firm strategy / portfolio operations / investor relations. The responsibilities include: fund reporting, LP...

15 Oct 2019

Hello Everyone, I was recently approached by a recruiter from one of the Big 3 PE firms about an IR position. As an analyst I had never really considered it as an option until now. The pay is extremely competitive compared to what I'm making now as an analyst at a consulting firm (They're offering...

11 Dec 2019

Diversity recruiting has been the subject of several posts over the last few weeks. Although there are existing WSO posts that try to aggregate opportunity for diverse candidates, this one aims to be an exhaustive list that includes all the introductory programs and formal internship pipelines...

03 Jan 2017

Senior Associate working at $5B+ fund. I was not accepted to H/S/W - but did get into some other M7 schools. Looking to eventually secure a VP role at a MM PE shop. Would appreciate people's thoughts on whether its worth pursuing an MBA outside of H/S/W vs. looking for other opportunities (i.e....

09 Jan 2020

2nd year corp dev analyst covering several software verticals. LT goal is to get to a MM+ software buyout shop, expecting to probably shoot for an MBA. Have an opportunity to lateral in my non-T1 city to a LMM shop that's more traditional (manufacturing, business services, transportation) with a...

17 Jul 2020

Just finished my summer at an MBB consulting firm and had a great experience (loved the people, the work, etc.) -- I got a return offer and I'm definitely leaning towards going back. I'm strongly interested in doing PE after spending two years at MBB and wanted to get people's thoughts on which MBB...

13 Aug 2019

Hi all, Interviewing in a couple weeks for a Financial Services specific MM PE shop but not sure how to think about investments in this space from a PE perspective. What makes a good LBO target in Financial Services (banks, insurance companies, investment managers, etc.)? And what are things to look...

03 Jun 2020

All, I work at a middle-market fund (started about 8 months ago here) and wanted to learn from someone qualified (associate level or above) who works on the buyside what the best and most efficient way to analyze a CIM is (Confidential Information Memorandum, for those who're not aware is a 40-50+...

13 Oct 2016

Hi All - I'm ~5 or so years out of college. I did not do a formal 2 years of investment banking and was instead hired out of undergrad as an analyst at a fund. I've worked at several firms in several major US cities. I've worked at one smaller regional firm with $500M - $1B AUM and have since worked...

04 Sep 2016

Mod Note (Andy) - this Q&A originally went up last December but @THE PsYcHoLoGy" wrote and said he could still answer questions WSO, I joined this site during my junior year of college, and it has proved to be a great resource time and again. There is a wealth of information on this site ranging...

03 Mar 2016

Hi all, I'm currently a first year Associate at a MM PE fund in the Midwest. My program is a 2-and-out and I'm looking to move back to NYC (did 3 years of IB there) at its conclusion. I will be reaching out to the normal list of headhunters contained in this list but was wondering if there were...

09 Apr 2020

I doubt any one here has started a real estate private equity firm, but given my access to some institutional money ($+-200M) I might--MIGHT--be in the process and, to be completely honest, there really aren't any better real estate forums that I'm aware of, so I figured this would be as good of a...

23 Jul 2017

Mod Note (Andy) - as the year comes to an end we're reposting the top discussions from 2015, this one ranks #33 and was originally posted 6/9/2015. I've been searching info about these guys for a while now. There are few threads on WSO with some insight, but still pretty limited; best source...

25 Dec 2015

Had anyone dealt with Kainos before? 'The blockbuster suit levies a host of allegations against Kainos co-founders Andrew Rosen and Robert Sperry, as well as chief financial officer David Knickel, including that they attempted to "steal" Bradley's 25% stake in the firm's investment manager and that...

07 Feb 2019

Weighing a couple of options for a first job out of school. As of now I have a merchant banking offer at a middle market firm (read: Piper Jeffery, Rothschild) and also have a final round with an MBB. If I get MBB, which would be in a less desirable city, so which would be a better career option if...

09 Oct 2019

Hi everyone, Curious to see what you think the minimum ACT score is to not be seriously dinged for PE recruiting. I intend to target buyout shops in the UMM space, but would also like to hear what you think the threshold is for other fund sizes. I assume MF/UMM funds have a higher minimum threshold...

07 May 2019

Hey everyone I just have a quick question about PE in Canada. What are the comps like at the big Canadian PE shops (Onex, Birch Hill, etc)? What are the comps like working at a PE arm of a pension fund? Is IBD or PE generally better in terms of long-term careers in Canada? Thanks

17 Apr 2018