Private equity firms launch delayed recruiting drive after summer outcry

Large US private equity firms completed a whirlwind graduate recruitment drive on Monday after they had delayed the traditional summer hiring schedule for six months after drawing the ire of the likes of JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon and Apollo chief executive Marc Rowan.

Firms that had held interviews on Monday included Blackstone, Apollo, Carlyle, TPG, Silver Lake, General Atlantic, Hellman & Friedman and Warburg Pincus. Some extended offers on the day, while others will finish their final-round interviews on Tuesday.

First-year investment banking analysts were informed by private equity firms and headhunters on Sunday night to appear on Monday for technical interviews, spreadsheet exams and behavioural questions.

The abrupt January interviews come after the biggest firms halted their “on-cycle” recruitment process in the June window after Dimon said last year that JPMorgan would terminate junior analysts for accepting future-dated jobs.

Rowan later in the summer said he agreed with Dimon on the flaws of an early recruiting calendar, and several other large private equity firms including General Atlantic said they would hold off hiring 2027 private equity associates until 2026.

So-called buyside firms have historically preferred to select candidates who had at least one year of banking experience. However, in recent years some firms eager to secure top candidates had begun procuring new hires two years prior to expected start dates — just as they were beginning trainee sessions at investment banks.

JPMorgan told incoming analysts in June that it would fire any analysts who took private equity jobs within their first 18 months of joining the bank. Dimon had said previously that accepting private equity jobs early in a banking tenure was “unethical” and that we wanted “patriots” not “mercenaries”.

JPMorgan declined to comment on the latest private equity firm recruitment efforts, but a person familiar with its policies said the 18-month rule remained in effect.

Investment banks including JPMorgan typically fill their ranks of trainees during their second year of college, more than two years before those stints would begin.

One private equity executive described this week’s recruiting events as “more tempered” after the 2025 backlash. Other firms said they had several slots for the 2027 class that they could fill in the coming months.

An analyst told the Financial Times his interviews at private equity firms on Monday began at 7.30am and he had accepted an offer by 9pm to begin in 20 months’ time. He said most of his banking classmates had skipped work for the day to shuttle between PE firms, with some abandoning one firm on Park Avenue to walk over to another that had just sent a fresh interview invite.

The analyst added that junior bankers arrived at work on Tuesday to compare and show off the jobs they had secured the night before.