Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. Vault Career Guide to Private Equity is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting.
|
Vault Career Guide to Private Equity Get the inside scoop on jobs and careers with Vault career guides. Vault Career Guide to Private Equity is your complete resource to jobs, careers, interviews and recruiting. |
|
 |
Vault Career Guide to Private Equity If you're interested in a career in finance, it's time to explore private equity. The salaries are high, the work is intellectually challenging, and the lifestyle's (relatively) stable. But private equity can be a tough field to break into--private equity firms are secretive and little-understood, and jobs are often unadvertised.
This guide is crucial to your success in the private equity industry. Youll find information about institutional investment management, hedge funds, mutual funds, venture capital and more, great interviewing and career advice, and an invaluable sense of life on the job and career paths at private equity firms and beyond. |
There are only about 200 private equity companies operating at any one time in the United States, and that number can vary due to openings and closures on the small end of the scale. But the money they manage is impressive. According to the newly created Private Equity Councilformed by firms in response to increasing pressure from Washington on their activities and profits/private equity firms were responsible for $406 billion in transactions in 2006. They had already eclipsed that mark by mid-2007.
Like their venture capital cousins, private equity firms generally find specialties within the industry. Some firms will focus on middle-market, mid-cap transactions, while others take aim at overseas purchases. Still others look at small, public companies or those within a specific sector.
And then there are the big ones. They have the money and clout to go after the biggest deals in a variety of sectors. Heres a look at the biggest and most noteworthy firms in private equity today:
