Culture and hours at PE in London
Hi, just curious if anyone can share how the culture and hours is like in MF and MM? Is it the same toxic as BB since they’re basically same group of ppl moving around? Or in London it’s a bit more chill than US? Would Private Credit have better wlb? Thanks a lot in advance!
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I'm in MM infra and jumping to UMM / large cap infra in London. Generally not as bad as banking, but the pressure is much much worser lol. The ownership of real work that has a real impact on the bottom line is way more stressful than just churning out decks and managing data rooms on the sellside.
Infra has a great culture generally because you get people who come from engineering, developers etc. and not just hardo bocconi GS/MS/JP people.
Exceptions are the very large players - friends at brookfield are in office 5 days a week until 3am then until 10pm both days on weekends apparently. the comp is ridiculous there but I also don't want to die, so pick your poison
What’s the stereotype of the continental Europeans everyone seems to roast them
Curious too
Bocconi hardo's love the prestige and sweatiness.
Their whole life is IB - from the 15x internships, only conversating about Accounting or to other people in their native language
Another stereotype is the German with 5 internships, no hobbies and the personality of a wooden spoon
Could you PM me? I'm starting at MM infra soon and hope to make a similar move in 2-3 years time.
What have you heard in terms of comp for brookfield infra?
Friend of mine who worked there as a post-MBA assoc in infra said base was £165k, with 100% bonus and carry. that base for an associate is materially higher than pretty much any other firm in London (unless he was lying of course, but i doubt that)
Any threads/advice you give on "carry" payments, I've briefly heard of this before.
Looking to understand how frequently carry payments are made, what size payments grow to (as you go up the hierarchy) etc.
I'm in MM London.
I'd say on average, I probably average out to ~7 to 7.30pm across the year, although feel like it has been higher over LTM due to bolt-ons, new deals, and exits. That said, a 'bad' day would be working till starting at 9am and finishing at 10/11pm.
Agree with the point above regarding stress/pressure. Deal teams are lean, sometimes, 2 / 3 per deal. Just have to be extra careful with things which impact returns. Also, depending on fund size, the leanness can mean more 'DIY' or doing random things.
Yes and honestly that’s the reason I’m switching firms. The UMM shop has bigger funds and therefore bigger DD budgets and can hire buyside financial advisors - that in my mind is the biggest quality of life improvement when moving to PE, having bankers to do the heavy lifting on the model. You still own it but at least you don’t have to work 90 hours a week linking cells and formatting! I was in a situation in my current shop where we closed a deal using a model only I had built and ever had eyes on - when that gets enshrined in docs etc, it’s incredibly stressful. How can you spot model busts like that? Just creates operational risk.
It’s a fair point. One I’ve considered too.
Did you have any carry at previous MM role? Main thing that keeps me is good opportunity to grow fund size (ie. to become UMM) and move up the ranks and the carry.
I don’t want to ruin your hopes but I have never seen any PE Fund voluntarily handing over the model to the bankers.
I mean what are you getting paid for by your investors if you don’t even take care of the model?
Special Sits MF, London based
If not working on deal, would say 9am until 8/9pm on most days (Mon-Thu), 9am-6pm on Friday, limited weekend work (usually to get ahead for the week). Maybe twice a month until midnight, if some internal deadline. If working on deal, just banking hours really, i.e. back to post 2/3ams on most nights
Agree with the increased level of stress/pressure, given responsibilities, however you are more in charge of your workload and deadlines
I'd add to that, you feel more tired in the evening (even though you work less hours), as you're not just executing tasks, but are also required to actively think and add value
Joined a UMM last year, so far not been too bad since market is dead. Deal run where I had the model had 9-1-2AM on avg. in early stages. When not on live deal, expect to work till 8pm M-T and 6PM Friday.
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