Private Equity Recruiting Timeline

Private equity is incredibly hard to go into straight from college. The usual path is to first go into an industry like Investment Banking or Consulting, and then switching into Private Equity.

Usually PE firms will start recruiting in the fall of your first year as an analyst. Yes, this means two years in advance of when you would actually start. Like for Investment Banking, these interviews will be a mix of both behavioral and technical. It is less important to network for Private Equity when you are already working full-time, because if you are at a prestigious firm, many Private Equity firms and headhunters will come to you. However, that does not mean it is easy to get the job. In fact, it is even harder to get a Private Equity job than an Investment Banking job.

In fact, it is even harder to get a Private Equity job than an Investment Banking job.

However, some firms do recruit undergraduates, though most of these opportunities are through Diversity Programs. Some notable firms that recruit undergraduates from Harvard include KKR, Blackstone, Bain Capital, Alpine Investors, Silver Lake Partners, and Audax. Like almost all of the other industries, these firms offer some Sophomore or Junior internships to a few select students, who then have the opportunity to receive a Full-Time return offer. However, more firms are offering less and less summer internships and are now moving to recruiting mostly Full-Time. Unlike in Investment Banking, most students do go through the Full-Time recruiting process during their Junior summer internship in another industry like Investment Banking or Consulting.