Everyone Seems Perfect in PE

Is it just me or does everyone else seem to be so perfect in this industry? Everyone’s career is so linear and clean, everyone manages the politics perfectly and are top performers, everyone is able to have all aspects of their life in complete balance with no trade offs at all. The things that bothered me - having to be fake at work, dealing with psychotic seniors, and having no control over your schedule constantly - don’t seem to bother anyone else. Like other people have an innate ability to manage volatile personalities and be adored by everyone they work with. They can easily turn on and off from work and be perfectly fun and sociable the minute they’re not working. I’m not sure if I just worked with psychos or if no one else is being honest or maybe I’m just not as capable and put together as everyone else, but it feels like everyone else seems to be doing so much better at work, life, and everything else than I could ever do. Does anyone else ever feel this way?

 

Everyone is just trying to survive in PE, even the folks who seem like the smoothest operators.  At the end of the day, PE is a confidence game so if they can convince you they can't be bothered by anything they're doing well! 

 

I can tell you from personal experience that it's not always like this

A select few people have big egos and some will rat you out at first chance 

 

Only answering the title - LOL FUCK NO

"The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly" - Robert A. Wilson | "If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

Not sure if this is a finance thing, but high stress jobs + caffeine dependency = the most psychotic seniors that I have worked with. Your experience may vaary.

 

I'm first Year PE assoc; I spend so much time thinking about how I'm perceived. Luckily I'm pretty tall but every day I workout to look good and then dress well, etc. Try to talk to impress people constantly. Want haircut to be nice so people think I'm neat. Try to eat slowly so people don't think I'm a slob. Try to send well worded emails. It's all a show, my life is falling apart in my head constantly. I think a lot of people are like this.

 
Most Helpful

No, it's survivorship bias. Also, alot of less fortunate people with bad opportunities / exposure / bosses drop out, and you don't hear from them again.

I have been quite a few shit teams, and started at one.

Received absolutely zero guidance, likely because a large proportion of my seniors didn't know what they were doing themselves. Most people can't teach themselves everything they need to lateral out as an associate to a decent shop / join a decent PE shop. You'd be surprised how many analysts from BBs fuck up simple modeling tests.

Even in PE, a lot of mid-level seniors are also incompetent / can't be bothered to mentor, so then you got to pick up the ropes there yourself as well. And even if you've got the hang of being a good associate and have even developed some VP-level skills, you need to play politics to get promoted. Or take risks in joining a new, hopefully rising shop and be really lucky 

So many people drop out. 

if you had more friends in the industry / were friendly enough with your colleagues you'd know that alot of people are only here and pretending for the money.

 

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