Assuming that you’re being hired into private equity after a couple of years in investment banking, firms on the buy-side expect technical knowledge. This means that you know how to structure a discounted cash flow (DCF) and that your financial modelling skills are top notch. You will likely have been trained by a bulge bracket investment bank, after all. If you come from investment banking, you will have a background in one of three areas – M&A, financial sponsors (dealing with M&A deals...

Private equity is among the most desirable sectors of financial services, so much so that even the chosen few who make it into the M&A divisions of investment banks are clamouring to get in. Like the capital markets divisions of investment banks, private equity firms help raise money for companies in need of c. But while the banks will do this by selling shares or bonds in a company, a private equity company will offer funds to companies directly in return for an ownership stake. As a result,...

Investment banks employ as many technologists as large IT firms, but this doesn’t mean that everyone working in these departments are hands-on. In fact, there is a huge array of IT jobs in banking across a broad range of divisions. However, IT roles tend to fall into five camps; application development, business analysis, project management, infrastructure and technical support. The developer is at the coalface of the IT department. Much of the technology is developed in-house, but when banks...

If you work in financial technology in investment banking, your career path is set out for you in the same way as any other part of the business – you come in as an analyst, progress to associate, then vice president, director and eventually managing director. However, the vast array of job options available in IT is not the only choice you must make as you progress up the ranks, you must also decide whether you want to work in a technical or managerial role. Generally, those working in...

Private equity firms have been ramping up junior pay and targeting investment banking analysts ever earlier as they look to attract the best people from the banks’ graduate pool. Salaries have shot up by 14% year-on-year, but there’s one element of PE pay that takes it into the big leagues – carried interest. New figures from headhunters Heidrick & Struggles suggest that average salaries for associates or senior associates in the U.S. – a role that juniors move into after two to three years’...