Entering private equity is a tough nut to crack, and it’s quite evident, given the significantly low success rate of fresher finance graduates that apply for entry-level Private Equity jobs.

The private equity industry, across the world, only recruits the cream, but in return, pays handsomely. It’s an enormously large industry whose transaction amounts go into billions of dollars under each big deal. As a matter of fact, the highest-paid individuals in the finance industry domain come from private equity. 

Not only the young finance graduates but for experienced professionals from an investment banking background, too, struggle to build a career in private equity. If you are one of those individuals who like creating value for businesses, are adept at deal-making, and are good at soft skills, then, this career-field will prove to be apt for you in the long run. 

The Biggest of Business Deals Happen in the Private Equity World

If we take a look at the global PE deals that happened between the years 2014 & 2019, we will observe that the valuation of PE deals has only surged. As per a Statista report, in 2014, the valuation of private equity deals, collectively, was $564.6 billion. By 2019, it rose to a whopping $845.5 billion dollars. 

PE is considered a highly prosperous domain of any country’s economy and generally offers enormously big remunerations to its workforce. We will discuss in this article why it’s a great career choice for those who are studying finance at the moment or have recently completed their degree course in finance, or related subject disciplines.

Value of PE Deals that Happened Across the World between 2014 & 2019

Source:Statista 

Suitability to a Private Equity Career - How Do PE Firms Hire?

If you are a finance graduate from the Americas and want to secure an entry-level job at a US private equity firm, it’s going to be painfully difficult to break into the said industry, unless you happen to be a graduating student from an Ivy-League college or university. The top private equity firms in the US do hire from only the reputed colleges, business schools, and universities in the country, and abroad. Or else, you must have some solid corporate connections in the private equity industry to get an interview. 

One more option to get your foot in the door is taking the route of applying through a reputed management consultancy. The other great option to consider for entering the said business domain is to secure admission in an elite business school having a reputation for its expertise in delivering world-class finance education. 

A few of such global business schools would comprise Stanford, Harvard, Booth, Wharton, Oxford, LBS, Cambridge, ESSEC, INSEAD, and HEC. As a matter of fact, the high-worth private equity investment professionals in the US that own a PE firm, prefer MBA-Finance graduates as “Associates’ at their firms. 

From Where Do The PE Firms Hire Their Analysts & Associates?

• Boutique banks and middle-market banks.
• Private equity professionals from other PE firms.
• bulge-bracket investment banks
• Finance undergraduates for entry-level roles.

The largest of PE firms like Carlyle, KKR, and Blackstone, recruit experienced investment bankers in the entry-level and junior roles, most preferably those with an experience of two to three years in investment banking. 

To Conclude…

Being equipped with all the required attributes mentioned above does position you as an ideal candidate for a PE job interview, but then, you need a perfect CV too, to ace your interview. A good CV would comprise only one page, with four to five bullet points consisting of vital information on your suitability for the concerned job. One must cover his educational background, academic performance, and professional interests under those bullets.