Interview with a Private Equity MD

Every now and then Bateman Begins conducts interviews with professionals working in finance in India, but for this interview, we are going to switch things around a little. Today’s interviewee is a Managing Director at a major private equity fund in the US, and has worked on investments in India in the past. He was kind enough to have a wide-ranging conversation with me and some of his insights are absolutely fascinating.

Read on to find out what an MD has to say investing and business in India in the most detailed interview ever conducted by Bateman Begins. He’s an American, so you get the added bonus of getting to know an outsider’s perspective of doing business in India.

Tackling the 'Relevant Experience' Problem

The other day a reader emailed me to discuss some thoughts, and one point that he made has been at the back of my head since then. It’s something that I’m sure many of you can relate with, and is such an important matter than it deserves a post of its own.

All too often a finance hopeful hears the comment, “You’re good, but you don’t have relevant experience”. Most aspirants take it as a sign of rejection and try again elsewhere, even though this need not be the end of the line. It is a difficult obstacle to overcome, but by no means an insurmountable one. Read on to find out why. 

Bateman Begins: Genesis

Bateman Returns.

After a considerable gap, Bateman Begins is back online and ready to bring you more on the select world of finance. But now, Bateman Begins will be expanding its mandate to a much broader territory. Instead of articles on just breaking into finance and interviews, you will now also get to know about personal experiences in finance – both mine as well as of those whom I’ve spoken with, along with a little bit of this and that.

It’s been over a year since I started my current private equity gig as well as Bateman Begins, and it feels like it’s been forever. I’ve talked about endless networking, cold-calling and about a guy who broke into finance from an IT internship, but I haven’t talked about how I broke in. I once mentioned how sometimes even someone you meet in a train can get you a job. Now while I didn’t stalk some poor guy during his daily commute, the way I got my job is just as bizarre.

Instead of telling you my whole story here, I’ll point you to the very inspiration of this website, Brian DeChesare’s M&I. Brian was considerate enough to run an interview with me on his website, so you can head on over there for a complete run down on how I broke in, what’s the industry like in India and what it is that I do at my job.

Read my interview here.

Enjoy, and as always, feel free to comment any questions that you have below! 

Trials by Fire & Water - Part II: Acing the Trials

After a bit of a gap, it’s time to get back to that elusive path to landing a job in finance. In Part-I of Trials by Fire and Water, you got the inside track on what typical investment banking and private equity hiring process are like and came to know of what you can expect in your interviews.

But of course, just knowing what hurdles you will be facing is not enough – you also need to know how to cross those hurdles and what mistakes to avoid. So in this post, I will attempt to help you do just that in Part II of Trials by Fire and Water – Acing the Trials.

Bateman Interviews: CEO - "I'm a guy who gets things done"

It’s been a while since I posted a new interview, so I thought what better way to get back to the job than an interview with the top guy in a company? I recently got a chance to have a lengthy one-on-one conversation with CEO of the biggest flower company in India. He is a person who has reached where he is today, solely on the basis of sheer hard work and a determination to move ahead. In today’s plethora of MBA-wielding C-level executives, it’s hard to believe that he is not even a graduate. Today, he has over 27 years of experience and is considered an authority in the retail and e-commerce segments.

Read on if you are interested in a wealth of free information in an uninhibited conversation, with the sort of person most of us don’t even get to meet. Without further ado, presenting Mr. Pawan Gadia, CEO, Ferns N Petals.

IB & PE Interviews: The Trials by Fire and Water

So you have finally received that interview call from the PE firm in Mumbai. Great, congrats! But now you’re worried sick about what exactly they are going to grill you on. Will you be asked to pitch stocks or be required to build a full-blown DCF model in an hour?

Well, if you know what PE is, then you know you won’t be pitching stocks in the interview; but yeah, that DCF model with multiple scenarios is fair game. And now that I have successfully scared you about IB/PE interviews (if you still aren't scared, you should be – thinking back on my own interview experiences still gives me the chills), let’s talk about just what happens in IB & PE interviews. In Part II, we’ll see how we can come out of these grilling sessions alive and in one piece.

Like any other industry, there’s no fixed rule for the interview process. However, there are certain parts of the interview process that you will find in all IB and PE interviews. In keeping with the theme of the blog, this post will give you a true sneak-peak into the interview process at most firms.

Read on to know all about IB & PE Interviews: The Trials by Fire and Water.