Straddling Private Equity Interviews

Interview Process for Junior Roles

Most PE funds would follow the following interview process while recruiting for junior roles (Analyst or Associate)

Preliminary meetings

• A couple of of introductory meetings with VPs / Principals are generally conducted to gauge the firm’s interest in the candidate and to assess cultural fit as well as preliminary concepts and understanding of finance.
• Conversations in these rounds are generally around one’s past experiences, motivation and basic technical questions (could be finance related or could be logic tests like consulting cases or paper models focusing on conceptual clarity)

Case study

• The idea during PE interviews is to ensure that candidates are ready to hit the ground running from day zero. There is little or no formal training and candidates are expected to be comfortable with advanced financial modelling and have strong analytical and presentation skills.
• The case study is designed to be a 4-5 hour test of a real life company where candidates are generally expected to analyze information(pubic filings like annual reports, investor presentations, call transcripts, equity research reports etc.), prepare a three statement financial model, form an investment thesis and give an investment recommendation.
• The candidates are generally expected to present their findings in a PPT. Some firms may specifically ask for LBO models – this is more common when interviewing for buyout shops.
• The case study is generally followed by a debriefing meeting where the candidate is expected to present his findings and recommendation to VPs/Principals.

Meetings with the Senior Team

• Candidates who qualify the case study round go on to meet senior / remaining team members. This would include other VPs / Principals and all the MDs.
• Although these rounds continue to remain fairly technical, they also focus more on softer aspects – especially the cultural fit of the candidate.
• Once the entire team has met the recruiting pool of candidates, they make a final selection decision and onboard the newly selected team members.