How The Buyside Process Works.
Congrats on surviving banking / consulting recruiting. Now it's time to climb the next rung of the prestige ladder. Buyside recruiting comes with four key differences: oncycle vs. offcycle timelines, headhunters, modeling tests, and deal walkthroughs.
Oncycle / Offcycle
Headhunters
Model Tests
Deal Walkthroughs
TLDR
The four differences vs. banking.
Everything below is the compressed playbook. Come back to it before every coffee chat, every case study, and every superday.
Oncycle vs. Offcycle
Sprint
Oncycle
Duration
Officially kicks off first week of January, ~6 months after hitting the desk. Lasts ~1 month. Mostly geared towards MFPE.
Interview Format
Fastest path to an offer. Coffee chat, then a 4-hour Superday — sometimes midnight to 4am. Heavy focus on LBOs and PE value creation.
Upside
Lock up the dream job nearly 1.5 years in advance.
Downside
Creates FOMO — easy to act like an idiot if you're not ready. Headhunters will blacklist tourists.
On-Cycle PE Recruiting — Summer 2028 Start
Summer 2025 → Nov 2026
Headhunters reach out
December 2026
On-cycle kicks off (Apollo was first last year)
Jan → Feb 2027
Interviews conducted
~1 Week Later (Feb 2027)
Offers given
March 2027
On-cycle ends
Summer 2025 → Nov 2026
Headhunters reach out
December 2026
On-cycle kicks off (Apollo was first last year)
Jan → Feb 2027
Interviews conducted
~1 Week Later (Feb 2027)
Offers given
March 2027
On-cycle ends
Duration of the Process
Oncycle recruiting used to start almost immediately after graduating college. However, the timeline has shifted back to ~6 months after hitting the desk full-time. Oncycle now starts in the first week of January. For most analysts, they are becoming comfortable on the desk and may have 1-2 closed deals under their belt. Oncycle lasts ~1 month and is mostly geared towards MFPE (Mega-Fund Private Equity) recruiting. Think Apollo, Blackstone, CD&R, etc. Some large private credit shops like Ares also participate, but 90% of oncycle processes are strictly for private equity seats at the largest, sweatiest funds. Oncycle is mostly geared towards first year analysts, maybe some second years.
The Interview Process
Oncycle is the fastest path to a private equity offer. The interview process is typically a 1.5 month sprint to lock down a job 1.5 years in advance.
- Each firm has its own process, but it usually starts with a coffee chat with a member of the investment team. If the firm likes you, you'll be invited to a Superday. Superdays are 4 hours long and back-to-back interviews with members of the investment team. Expect a mix of behavioral and technical questions, with a heavy focus on LBOs and PE value creation. Some Superdays take place between midnight and 4am because firms are trying to close offers before competitors.
- Everyone has ~1-2 deals closed under their belt and interviewers will hammer you on the details of these transactions. Spend hours combing through the details of the structure, valuation, financials, synergies created, counterparties, etc of these transactions. Interviewers want to know your view if you were to invest in the same opportunity (see below more detail on how to walk through a transaction).
- The technical bar is high. You'll need to know LBO mechanics cold — sources & uses, debt schedules, returns analysis, and value creation levers. For practice cases from real PE processes at Apollo, Blackstone, Oaktree, and more, see our premium models library.
Merits of Oncycle
The biggest merit of oncycle is locking up your post-banking job 1.5 years in advance. You can spend the rest of your analyst stint focused on the deals you're working on instead of recruiting. You also avoid the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of dragging an offcycle process across months.
Cons of Oncycle
The biggest con is the FOMO it creates. Locking up a job 1.5 years in advance is great if you're sure of the fund, strategy, and culture — but most first-year analysts have no idea what they actually want. You might land at a fund and realize 6 months in that you'd rather be doing something completely different.
- Headhunters can blacklist you if they sense you're not ready or you're just shopping. Treat every interaction as if your offer depends on it — because it does.
Marathon
Offcycle
Duration
From oncycle wrap-up to associate 1 promotion. ~85% of buyside seats are offered here.
Interview Format
Can drag across months. 1–3 coffee chats, case study, debrief, Superday. Heavy focus on deal experience and modeling tests.
Upside
Take time to find the right fund, strategy, and culture fit.
Downside
Incredibly time-consuming while working full-time as an analyst.
Off-Cycle PE Recruiting — Summer 2028 Start
March 2027
Headhunters reach out
Spring 2027
Interviews start
Spring 2027 – Summer 2028
Interviews continue, volume spikes 1Q & 4Q
~3–6 weeks later
Offers given (mostly summer 2028 starts)
Summer 2028
Recruiting ends
March 2027
Headhunters reach out
Spring 2027
Interviews start
Spring 2027 – Summer 2028
Interviews continue, volume spikes 1Q & 4Q
~3–6 weeks later
Offers given (mostly summer 2028 starts)
Summer 2028
Recruiting ends
The Duration of the Process
From the point oncycle wraps up → promotion to associate 1. Around 85% of Buyside seats are offered during the offcycle process. There are also far more firms and strategies that recruit throughout the offcycle. PE (MM, LMM), PC, public credit, HF, VC / GE all recruit throughout the offcycle.
The Interview Process
Similar steps to oncycle, but interview processes can be dragged over months with some firms having 10+ rounds of interviews. Most processes take at least a month, maybe two depending on the firm's capacity / need to recruit. The usual cadence is 1-3 coffee chats, a case study, a case study debrief, and a superday (mostly behavioral). Interviews typically take place during the week. Be sure to have a rolodex of excuses to leave work / take a day to WFH (examples of excuses towards the bottom of the page). YOU ARE ON THE FIRM'S TIME. Just like oncycle, the interview process is centered around a). deal experience and b). technical ability (there is also a stronger emphasis on cultural fit for offcycle recruiting).
- For offcycle recruiting, interviewers want to know about the deals you've worked on (see below for information about how to walk through a deal). The bottom line is that you need to be intimately involved with every detail of the transactions you've worked on and listed on your resume. You also need to demonstrate the ability to think like an investor. Was it a good deal or bad deal for the parties involved?
- On the technical front, you will have a modeling test. You'll either be invited in-person or be provided with a case to complete over a few hours / days where you will literally open up excel and bang out a model (LBOs if you're looking for PE or traditional PC seats). Then, you'll debrief your model with the team. If you get the model wrong, you won't get the job. We have a bunch of models for you to practice with when you become a Premium Subscriber. These are REAL case studies provided from all types of funds across PE, PC, HF, and VC / GE (you won't find value like this anywhere else, most modeling courses cost ~$500 - $1,000).
Merits of Offcycle
You can take time to really think about the fund / strategy you want to work in. You can leverage tangible experience gained as an analyst to determine the parts of finance you like and hate the most before deciding to take another step in your career. You can also get a better idea of the people you'll be working with to see if you're going to a sweatshop or not — cultural fit becomes increasingly important as you age in your career.
Cons of Offcycle
It's incredibly time consuming. Interview processes last forever and you'll need to miss work to interview. This leads to more work building up and virtually all free time consumed by recruiting and working. Also, case studies / model tests provided during offcycle are significantly more intense than oncycle because you're on the firm's time. They want to invest in finding the right person and they want to make sure you can hit the ground running.
Headhunters
Headhunters are paid by the firm, NOT YOU, to find talent. It's a volume game and coaching you is not their job.
How the relationship unfolds
They find you
A few weeks into your analyst stint, HHs surface your email.
Preliminary call
Fit check, goals, target strategy. Be crisp — this is the filter.
Resume sent
They forward your resume to firms that match your stated targets.
Interviews
They schedule everything from here — coffee chats through superdays.
Headhunter Best Practices
- Be direct and targeted in your search
- Respond quickly
- Show confidence, never uncertainty
- NEVER admit that your modeling skills suck
Headhunters control what jobs you see. We show you EVERYTHING.
See the full buyside job universe — not the 15% your pipeline shows you.
Headhunters are a necessary hurdle in the recruiting process. They're paid by the firm to find the best talent. They do this by playing a volume game — emailing the same opportunities to different groups of candidates across the Street they deem to be the most qualified. However, through your own pipeline you'll likely only see 15% of the total available opportunities. Remember, they work for the firm, not for you! Their job is to place the right people quickly so they can get paid (average placement pay = 25-30% of the first year salary for the role they place someone into).
Their job IS NOT to coach you or help you with interview prep.
The Timeline of Headhunters
They will find your school or work email after a few weeks into your analyst stint. Will then send you opportunities for as long as you stay in finance (most firms place candidates up and down the ladder of juniors → seniors). Let's say a headhunter sends you an opportunity you like; you'll have a preliminary call with them to learn more about the Fund. If they think you're a good fit, they'll send your resume off to the firm. If the firm likes you, they'll ask the headhunter to schedule an interview. It's a match! You'll send times to the headhunter with your availability over the next two weeks and they'll correspond with the Fund. Only then will you finally chat with someone at the Fund. After a few first round chats, you'll be given a case study — this is typically sent to the headhunter and then sent to you. When completed, you'll typically send it back to the headhunter for them to send back to the Fund. If you killed the case, you'll then have a model debrief and Superday scheduled through the headhunter. If you kill the Superday, you'll get an offer and the headhunter will call you to double-check you're committed to this offer. After accepting the offer, they'll probably start asking if you're interested in public markets investing opportunities after your 2-3 year associate stint — the wheel never stops spinning.
How the Headhunters Work
After a few weeks into your analyst stint, headhunters will find your school or work email to pipeline you opportunities and get a picture of: the group you work in, the deals you've worked on, the type of strategy you want to move to next, the size of the firm you want, and the geography you're looking to work in. Any conversation you have with a headhunter is an interview. To get this information from you, they typically set up Zoom ‘coffee chats’ — this is a screening round. Next, they'll share opportunities with you that try to match your specified criteria. As I said, they get paid for placing you. If they think you're a good fit for private credit in Dallas, then they'll send you that opportunity. Unless your preferences genuinely switch throughout recruiting, DO NOT entertain opportunities outside of your specified criteria (see below what to say to headhunters). All said and done, you'll walk away with days of coffee chat experience, which is pretty good interview experience.
What to Say to Headhunters
You need to be very clear in what you want or else they won't send you the best opportunities. Say something like: ‘I want to work at an UMM PE fund in NYC ideally investing within the tech sector’ vs. ‘I'm open to PE or hedge funds and think I'm interested in the East Coast but not totally sure yet. Also, I don't have a sector preference.’
DO NOT try to go the side door by scheduling networking calls with random associates and principals at the funds you want to work at — especially for oncycle recruiting. They hire the headhunters to handle this step and may even blacklist you for being tacky.
Merits of Headhunters
No more cold outreach / endless LinkedIn messages needed. I hated networking for my banking internship — it sucked and I felt like an idiot. The fact that I no longer needed to do my own boots on the ground networking for the Buyside made the process much more tolerable. Speaking with headhunters is also good interview prep. They'll ask you standard questions such as: ‘walk me through your resume,’ ‘tell me about a deal you worked on,’ ‘why do you want to go into an investing seat?’ These are all questions that will likely arise in your actual interviews with Funds.
Cons of Headhunters
They work for the Funds, not for you! Also, a frustrating aspect of headhunters and a huge reason why we created ‘Buyside Associate Recruiting’ is because headhunters control virtually every single Buyside interview process. It is very likely you'll never even get the chance to interview at Apollo because the headhunters controlling that interview process just didn't think you'd be a good fit...regardless of whatever preferences you gave them. Despite how many headhunters you'll connect with, you may only ever see about 15% of the available Buyside job market through your own pipeline.
Model Tests & Case Studies
You must pass an Excel modeling test. Get one thing wrong and you're cut. Funds want execution animals.
Timing
30 min – 5 days
Material
Excel model + memo (template or scratch)
Source Data
Prompt, deck, or 10-Ks
A huge difference from the banking / consulting undergrad recruitment processes is that for Buyside seats across PE, PC, HF, and VC / GE you'll need to pass an Excel modeling / case study test. This typically falls within the middle of any given recruitment process and is similar in nature to banking technicals or consulting case studies where you CANNOT get anything wrong. If you get something wrong, you'll be cut from the process.
Our strategy-specific write-ups here:
- Private Equity Recruiting | Buyside Associate Recruiting
- Private Credit Recruiting | Buyside Associate Recruiting
- Hedge Fund Recruiting | Buyside Associate Recruiting
- Venture Capital and Growth Equity Recruiting | Buyside Associate Recruiting
Funds want juniors to be execution animals. If you can't model, they don't want you. Your core responsibilities will include modeling and putting together information for an investment memo. The sad reality is that your ability to accurately model is valued 10x more than your unique insights or general grit — this is simply because accurate modeling is much easier to measure when you're only meeting someone for a few hours prior to giving them an offer!
The good thing is that we have over 15+ real case studies selected from premier private equity, private credit, L/S hedge funds, and venture capital / growth equity firms. These practice cases and their answer keys are warehoused within our Premium Subscription. For only $300, you'll be able to land a job paying $200K in your first year with potential for a 7-figure career. That's a 67,000% return and likely the best investment you'll ever make!
Regardless of the strategy, the nature of the modeling tests are very similar:
- Timing: Anywhere between 30 minutes → 5 days. Most timed cases will be in-person or proctored lasting anywhere from 30 minutes → 4 hours. Take home cases are typically provided towards the end of the week to provide you with a full weekend to grind. The general rule of thumb is that the more time you have, the deeper in detail you have to go, and the more work you'll have to do. There is no free lunch here.
- Material: An excel model and sometimes an investment memo / presentation. Will include a separate debrief with the interviewers after completion.
- Source Data: You'll be provided an investment prompt, management deck, or sometimes just a bunch of 10-Ks to input investment information and assumptions onto a templated model or blank excel.
Walking Through Deals
Know every deal on your resume front-to-back. A clean walkthrough runs 1–2 minutes, and lands in this order:
01
The Setup
Transaction size, parties involved, and type of deal (M&A, IPO, debt, etc.).
02
The Verdict
Good investment or bad? Stake your position before defending it.
03
2–3 Merits
What makes this business compelling? Competitive moat, unit economics, secular tailwinds.
04
2–3 Considerations
What do you need to get comfortable with? Leverage profile, cyclicality, management bench.
05
2–3 Risks & Mitigants
What could break the thesis — and how does the capital structure or strategy protect against it?
Another critical component of Buyside recruiting is being able to succinctly walk through a deal you've worked on. Your deal / project experience is the only work experience anyone will want to chat about during an interview and everything you've worked on is fair game for discussion; so you better know the details. It can be as broad as just describing the highlights of a transaction in a few bullets to being asked to recall what 2022 revenue looked like.
Rule of thumb is to know at least every deal on your resume front-back. To be safe, you should also know the details of at least one other ‘off-resume’ transaction in the event your interviewer is being a dick and asks: ‘tell me about something you've worked on that isn't on your resume.’
The Five Components
When you walk through a deal during an interview, your response should be 1-2 minutes and it should cover:
- 1The transaction size, parties involved (be vague here to be cautious), and the type of transaction
- 2Whether it's a good investment or bad investment
- 32-3 merits of the transaction
- 42-3 considerations
- 52-3 risks and mitigants
An Example
“I recently had the opportunity to work on a sponsor's $2bn purchase of a B2B cybersecurity SAAS business. This particular company sells encryption services to financial institutions across the US so that only the right people are able to view certain files.
I think this was a good investment from the sponsor's perspective because they were able to purchase this business at a 10x LTM EBITDA multiple with 70% debt yielding a projected IRR of 32% by year 5.
A couple of key merits of this transaction are: a). the $50mm of annual FCF generation this business has to repay debt, b). the low purchase price of 10x LTM EBITDA in an industry trading at 13x median multiples, and c). the sponsor's proven track record to create value for B2B cybersecurity SAAS businesses.
A large consideration here is that the cost to acquire new clients is enormous given that the primary customer base consists of heavily regulated financial institutions. This could inhibit the business's ability to grow rapidly.
A few risks of this transaction include: a). reputation risk and b). an incredibly competitive industry.
Regarding reputation, a CrowdStrike-esque outage would significantly impair their ability to maintain existing customer relationships and attract new business. As a mitigant, the Company spends $20mm per year to execute its 10-step internal risk management framework to ensure its able to serve customers at all times with the proper information.
Regarding the competitive landscape, B2B cybersecurity is incredibly competitive with large companies such as Virtru dominating the non-FI customer base and financial institutions looking to build out their own encryption services in-house. A mitigant here is that the Company locks up financial institutions for 3-year contracts to generate predictable cash flow and has a patented IP on its core encryption process to retain its ability to compete.”
What NOT to Do
Five fast ways to torch your shot.
- Reach out to investors at funds directly.
- Talk shit about your current job.
- Disclose deals that haven't been publicly announced.
- Tell anyone about an offer until your background check clears.
- Do NOT pursue the buyside merely because your peers are. You're independent, make your own judgement based on what you want to do.
Best Excuses to Interview
Doctor's appointment
(valid 3-5 times a year)
Maintenance guy to fix something in your apartment
(good ~3 times a year)
Call out sick
(good up to ~5 times a year)
Meeting with a wealth advisor
(good 1 time a year)
Long distance relative / friend in town
(good up to 2 times a year)
Take time off / vacation days
(whatever your company policy allows)
What to Wear
Standard work wear. Err on the side of what you'd wear in your current office.
Button-down shirt
(the non-negotiable base layer)
Suit pants
(pressed, dark, no chinos)
Standard office shoes
(leather, clean, closed-toe)
Jacket & tie
(optional — read the firm)
When in doubt, overdress slightly — it's easier to lose a tie in the elevator than to find one.
Private Equity
The LBO is the final boss.
Every PE interview ends at the LBO. If you can't build one cleanly under pressure, nothing else matters.
The Associate Role
Banking 2.0.
You'll do the grunt work with no room for error. The upside: you get to wear an investor's hat and form real views on companies — something you never fully got to do in banking.
What makes a good LBO candidate
Stable FCF
Deep competitive moat
Strong tailwinds
Reasonable leverage
Strong management
How the LBO process works
- 1
Diligence valuations across comps and precedent transactions.
- 2
Draft operating assumptions with management.
- 3
Build Sources & Uses for the transaction.
- 4
Spread the income statement with full projections.
- 5
Project cash flows available for debt paydown.
- 6
Build the debt schedule (tranches, rates, amortization).
- 7
Calculate MOIC and IRR — funds target 20–25%.
Key Scenarios
Levers for Juicing Returns
Private Credit
The lender's seat at the LBO table.
Still an LBO — just from the other side. Instead of maximizing equity returns, you're engineering downside protection.
The Associate Role
Mile wide, foot deep.
Similar to leveraged finance — you'll cover a huge volume of deals at less depth than a PE associate. More of a financing role than pure-play investing. A lot of the job is politically negotiating favorable outcomes for every party at the table.
The PC lens
Traditional private credit is lending 1st lien term loans to sponsor-backed businesses. It's still an LBO — you're just on the lending side of the table.
PC Returns Analysis
Purchase / Lend
(Principal × OID) − Fees
Cash Flows
Cash Interest + Principal + Prepay
Target IRR
~15%
The four components
- 1Your ‘purchase’ is the (principal balance of your lend × OID) − financing fees
- 2Cash flows are: cash interest + principal payments + prepayments
- 3Your ‘exit’ is the repayment of your outstanding principal balance
- 4Some important considerations: OID is a mechanism to enhance the return of your lend, PIK interest accrues to the debt balance and is not a cash flow, lenders typically target ~15% IRRs
Key Credit Ratios
Leverage Ratio
4–6x
Debt / EBITDA
Interest Coverage
≥ 1.5x (3.0x good)
EBITDA / Interest
Fixed Charge Coverage
≥ 1.0x (2.0x solid)
EBITDA / Fixed charges
Hedge Funds
Know the business better than the CFO.
Engineering financial returns won't save you here. You need a real view on operations, competitive position, and narrative.
The Associate Role
You own the names.
Similar to equity research — you'll become the expert on specific businesses. The detail can be excruciating (5,000+ line models), but this is true investing. You analyze companies in order to deploy capital, full stop.
The HF lens
Geared towards understanding a business and organic value creation rather than financial engineering. Interviews require a 3-statement model and a DCF.
Building a 3-Statement
- 1Bust open 10-Ks, 10-Qs, and earnings presentations to input ~3 years of historical information
- 2Assess historical performance and current events to drive some assumptions for your model (revenue growth, EBITDA margin, NWC changes, Capex, debt issuance, etc). For the most part, all income statement assumptions are a % of sales
- 3Use your assumptions to forecast the income statement over 5-10 years
- 4Forecast core balance sheet items such as working capital line items (AR, AP, Inventory), PP&E, and the debt balance
- 5Tie back items such as D&A and interest expense into the income statement. Add net income to shareholders' equity and complete the balance sheet projection. Cash should be the last item to plug
- 6Use the income statement and balance sheet to drive the cash flow statement
- 7Tie your ending cash balance back to the balance sheet. At this point, your balance sheet should balance and you'll complete your 3-statement model
Building a DCF
- 1Spread revenue, EBITDA, and unlevered free cash flow over 5-10 years (you can leverage your 3-statement model here)
- 2Calculate your WACC. You should know how to do this by now
- 3Calculate your terminal value using the Gordon Growth Method and Multiples Method
- 4Discount back your unlevered free cash flow and terminal value using the WACC to arrive at your enterprise value
- 5Deduct debt and add back cash to arrive at your equity value
- 6Divide equity value by the fully diluted shares outstanding to arrive at your share price
Core Components of a Good Investment
Is it the right price?
Is the business aptly profitable?
Do I understand the business model?
What's the competitive landscape?
Is management strong?
Other Considerations? (Stock Buybacks, Stock Issuance, etc)
Stock Buybacks
Stock Issuance
Dividend Policy
M&A Optionality
Venture Capital
Bet on the top line.
Forget leverage — your entire thesis is growth, unit economics, and whether this team can execute.
The Associate Role
Low on the totem pole — but more room to run.
You're the junior, but there's far more room to take initiative and source your own deals than in PE. Chill hours, but you're constantly hunting for the next big thing at conferences and social events.
The VC Lens
You're building a standard 3-statement model and baking in key investment assumptions like the multiple paid on the investment, total dollars invested, and any investment structures (preferred equity, liquidation preferences, etc).
Top-Line / Customer Cohort Analysis (B2B SaaS)
- 1Using vintages of customer data, you want to assess the average contract value for each customer across each vintage. Then, you want to segment the customers according to their size and industry they conduct business in
- 2With this data, you can calculate key SAAS metrics like LTV, Churn, Logo Retention, ACL, CAC, and ultimately ARR. The goal is to paint a picture of how the business compounds over time without drastically increasing costs as a means of achieving profitability
The best way to visualize this is by opening up a model and tracing back the formulas to get a picture of what each metric is trying to achieve.
Key SaaS Metrics
Tap any tile to reveal the definition.