How to Get the Most Desired Private Equity Job?

Though a job in private equity can take a toll on you, the pay along with the benefits make it totally worth your time and efforts. And if you are someone who likes to play with numbers and have a way with people, private equity is perfectly suitable for you.

Working in private equity will give you the opportunity to experience some of the most high-paced work related to finance. Investments in private equity involve ventures with really high stakes on them, so if you are aspiring to work in a private equity firm and handle some billion-dollar stake, you have to be prepared for taking responsibility for the consequences.

A career in private equity sure is glamorous. That is the reason why most people studying finance dream about making a super successful private equity career. But how easy do you think it is to do so?

In this article, we are going to discuss the different kinds of professionals in finance seeking a private equity job. And also how tough or simple is it for them to actually get one.

1. Fresh graduates

As a fresh graduate, it is highly troublesome to earn a job in private equity, especially with a top level firm. So, if you are a fresh graduate and looking for a private equity job, being realistic, you will first have to obtain some experience in banking or perhaps gain an internship experience in private equity in order to land a job.

Or else what you can do is crack the entrance exam of a top business school where private equity corporations hire undergraduates. Furthermore, you can also go for a private equity certification to get a competitive edge during your job search.

2. Investment Banking Analysts

It's relatively much easier for investment banking analysts to land a private equity job, especially, when they are the first people to be approached by headhunters for filling in crucial positions in private equity. One reason behind this is that the investment banking firms support private equity firms in various types of ventures.

So, if you are working for an investment bank, you have incredibly high chances of entering into a top-notch private equity firm.

3. Analyst operating in associated industries

There are times when professionals working in one field feel like switching to another one. This is in the case of many people associated with management consulting firms who sometimes wish to shift to private equity. However, a thing about private equity firms is that they are more inclined towards recruiting candidates from a solid financial background.

So, in case you have worked as an analyst for a management consulting corporation, you should focus on applying in private equity corporations that possess a past record of hiring management consultants. An example of such a private equity corporation that hires analysts from allied industries is the Golden Gate Capital.

For analysts belonging to allied industries, there is another way of getting into private equity and that is if they target particular industry-specific PE firms which are medium in size. By doing this, they can also make use of your field of knowledge time to time.