6 Buyside Recruiting Myths

Are your friends preparing and recruiting for Buyside roles? Is Private Equity right for you? Will you be able to break in?

With many Buyside interviews about to kickoff, let’s debunk some common myths about the industry and many of the questions we get day-in-and-day-out about breaking into the Buyside:

Myth #1: Headhunters will give me another chance if I mess up this first round of interviews, right?

• Not true. If you seriously mess up with a headhunter’s client, that feedback will come back to the headhunter - and sometimes in a super blunt manner. Real world example: “Wow, X was not ready for this - how did they make the cut?” This is now on the Headhunter to make sure they never show you opportunities again since you made their agency look really bad. Understand that it’s all a reputation game and you don’t want to be on the bad side of that reputation. Play it safe and take on help where you can. Fill out our 1-minute survey here to request a call with a Buyside professional to help you through the process.

Myth #2: I should wait for headhunters to reach out to me.

• Not recommended. This would be a very reactive strategy and it works better in super active recruiting environments. In 2025 we recommend focusing more on an actively engaging and proactive strategy. If you’ve been speaking with 1-2 headhunters already, it doesn’t hurt to ping others over email/LinkedIn saying - “Hope all is well, I’ve been connecting with peers of yours around opportunities in the UMM (upper middle-market) PE space - do you have a few minutes to chat over the phone this week?” Sure sometimes it might not work but you have to understand that these headhunters are effectively middle-men and women and make money every time they place someone to their clients (either “Banks” or the “Buyside”) which means that they want to speak with as many qualified candidates as possible and send their clients the top of the top. You just have to figure out how to not waste their time and make them see that you are of quality. Want a surefire way to success? Get an OfficeHours Coach to run you through our PE Curriculum!

Myth #3: Megafunds just aren’t attainable for me.

• It depends. Yes, your background (school, work experience) matters, but if you network hard enough and conduct cold outreach with the methods described above - explain why your MM experience parlays to working at a larger-cap shop - it could work in your favor. It will take more work than if you went to a Target School and worked at a Bulge Bracket Investment Bank, but it’s not impossible. In fact, one of our Coaches did it. You’d be surprised how many people are deterred from working at megafunds because they prioritize worklife balance and aren’t swayed by the financial compensation.

Myth #4: I went to a Target School / I have friends in the industry - I don’t need to pay for OfficeHours.

• Really? It’s awesome to have one-off friends to mock interview with, it’s awesome to have one-off friends to go to the gym with - however, what works for a single individual doesn’t mean that it will work for you. There’s a reason why people hire personal trainers. Similarly, we’ve developed a surefire way of recruiting that works for MOST. While you know you’re good (i.e. Harvard, Yale, Wharton) - you also understand that this industry is HYPER-COMPETITIVE and whatever edge you can get in it, you might as well take it.

Myth #5: I can just wing interviews, I got into banking - how difficult can this be?

• Wrong. There are 20,000 Investment Bankers out there and yet only less than 2,000 Buyside Associate Positions. This is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT BALLGAME. What worked for banking i.e. memorizing PDFs, being involved in school clubs, summer internships that turned into full-time opportunities will NOT work for PE - expect this to be breaking into the Pros versus Playing D1. Sure you’re better positioned, but how many athletes from D1 schools actually make it Pro? Now which actually make it Pro to teams that you care about? You don’t want to just end up at any firm, right?

Myth #6: I went to a Non-Target School, I will never be able to break in

• Not true. At OfficeHours, we work with many non-target individuals to get them a leg-up ahead of interview time, but you still have to put in the work. If that means pinging 100 people on a Sunday afternoon at 5PM with custom emails mentioning add-ons for the the portfolio company where they sit on the board - then so be it. These days, I would argue Non-Target Candidates sometimes will be more coveted than Target individuals because firms want HUNGER. Often times the ones that break in from Non-Targets generally end up being more HUNGRY.