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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Are you sure you want to build this onramp to Adderall and anxiety?  Speaking as a dual PE family, I would not onramp my kid into this.  You know who makes a lot of money? People who build great companies (owners or high level execs) who exit to PE or public markets every 2-3 years but still have a life. [/quote]

Can you tell me more about what's so hard about PE and why you are suggesting that PE people do not have a life?  Is it the travel or the long days or ??  Because as someone who works in Biglaw, has cancelled or worked through many vacations, missed weddings and other family events, had to work every freaking holiday, including Christmas and New Years, and generally being at the beck and call of clients at all hours, I thought PE had better lifestyle AND better pay and offramps than Biglaw.  I guess what I'm asking is: is it really that bad?[/quote]

I'm not in PE or IB, but I'm an executive at a corporate and work with them often. For IB, it's hard because you're always working. You're constantly pitching (if you're more experienced) or building models, endlessly revising decks, etc. (if you're junior). You're working with the companies you're trying to sell, you're pitching those companies to buyers, you're on the calls between your companies and your buyers, etc. And you travel a lot, do a lot of meetings in person (even if junior), so you're doing all of this spreadsheet and deck work at night. It's just time consuming, not necessarily extremely difficult, but it takes hours. For PE, you're doing much of the same, with slight changes as you're on the buyside. More time with models and less with PPTs, more time working with companies you own/invest in, etc. Which of these you prefer probably depends on personality. If you want to be in sales, being in IB is a good option given the relatively interesting work, high dollar deals and compensation. But hours are intense. To the questions specifically about PE vs. BigLaw, I'm not sure, but I think PE is typically fewer hours than IB as you get older. [/quote]

The hours for PE are going to be long like BigLaw, but I think there is a major psychological difference in the jobs.  At BigLaw, you are always working for someone else (the client), while PE in theory works for their LPs, but essentially they work for themselves.  You don't have CALPERs calling you every week yelling at you about your latest transaction vs. clients that may treat you like dirt.

Perhaps some of these major plaintiff law firms are more akin to PE.  They essentially fund their own lawsuits against Big Tobacco and then look for massive settlements.  Sure, there may be a "client"...but it's really the law firm making a financial investment in the lawsuit.[/quote]

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