how do you prepare

I thought you couldn't get it without a good MBA or solid strategy consulting/M&A experience.

why so

QuoteOriginally posted by: mitwhy soBecause it is an elite group and the most difficult industry to break in. They can afford to be highly selective. Just look at the MBA stats of Harvard and see how many could break into PE.

QuoteOriginally posted by: AbhiJQuoteOriginally posted by: mitwhy soBecause it is an elite group and the most difficult industry to break in. They can afford to be highly selective. Just look at the MBA stats of Harvard and see how many could break into PE.Indeed. Also, you need to have experience doing company valuations or management; at the end of the day that is what private equity jobs are mostly about. Maybe your background fits somehow, I don't know.

but there are a lot of PE firms, if you talk about the big ones like KKR, Apollo, then yes

In the case of PE, the small ones do something very different from the big ones. For a guy working for a value-investing 25MM equity fund, he can still apply the same fundamental analysis as if he is working for Warren Buffett. So as people who are say trading futures. But for a small 25MM PE, forget about launching LBOs like the big guys (or even participating one as a syndicate). Most likely the founder has a few business links beforehand and investing few millions here and there in the local businesses. The exposure is just so different if you work for one.Private equity is one of the very few asset classes which do not mean-reverting. In the literature, the top 20% of the PEs in the last 5 years will have 75% chance to remain in the top 20%. In addition to the more cynical explanations like Blackstone, KKR etc have too much political clout, there are more pragmatic reasons....