Any advice for later round PE associate interviews and modeling tests?

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I interviewed for 2 PE firms. Got one offer. For the first one I was out after the first round because the interview didn't go well at all; I didn't like the interviewers attitude so I didn't perform well. In the second one I had 3 interviews and one test where I had to build an LBO model and explain it in an hour and a half. To be very honest, I didn't expect them to ask me this. While I'm very good at DCF's etc, I haven't had alot of practice with LBO models so i don't think I did that well when it came to the actual model building but I explained it well. I suggest you go through the technicals and really think about why you want to go into private equity because they ask you these questions. Good luck!

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Thanks for the reply! Quick question, is DCF modeling a typical test for PE interviews? I am from consulting so have limited financial modeling skills and have been spending my time exclusively focused on the financial / accounting terminology and LBO modeling but not much on DCF other than understanding the fundamentals.

Well to be very honest I'm not sure it really depends on firm to firm they can ask you anything. I would recommend that you go through it though! You should know how a DCF works and how multiples and other valuation techniques are used.

Gotcha makes sense. Yah I understand the fundamentals of a DCF and can explain its assumptions and how to calculate it, but given an actual modeling / excel test I might struggle since I haven’t really looked at that at all. Sounds good, thanks for the advice

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