"I'm a VP at a top US bank. This is what I tell my juniors about private equity jobs"

I'm a vice president at a leading US bank. I've spent many years working with analysts and associates, most of whom want to work in private equity. This is what I say to them.

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Do not necessarily make the buy side the default next step in your career. I have a wariness towards buy side. I think it's become incredibly crowded. It was the case already when I was an analyst and associate, and it's become worse. Maybe I'm biased, but I can't think of a single person who was my class who's achieved an equivalent rank on the buy side as I have in banking.

You always have to do what's best for you. Juniors come to me with reasons to move to the buy side, which - when I question them - are ephemeral. The hours aren't better. The work isn't much different. The pay is often worse now that carried interest is less reliable. 

I have never offered advice that was geared towards having people stay in the bank, or in the team. My advice is always friend to friend, with people's best interests at heart. 

Before you leap, therefore, think of the reality of the move. Question whether you have a "grass is greener" mentality. Sometimes junior bankers say they want to leave because they don't like senior bankers throwing their weight around or because they want to build a "long story." But banking is a broad industry, and it can be easier to find appropriate jobs and friendly faces in big organizations with many different roles than smaller funds with big egos. 

The real problem is that the three (now two) year analyst cycle creates such a natural catalyst for juniors to think about their career planning that they have to make a deliberate, conscious decision to stay in banking, rather than the opposite. This is a shame. Banking is not a bad career. You could, honestly, do far worse. 

Harvey Hart is a pseudonym

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