Private equity funds are notoriously fussy. Large private equity funds are even fussier. As we told you last year, Carlyle only hires 5 people in London every year.

If you want to get into private equity, you will therefore need an impeccable CV. What does this constitute? Well…

Big brands

“What private equity funds are really looking for is bright, smart people with a lot of As and a first class honours,” says David Howell of recruitment firm EM Finance. “They’ll consider the reputation of the bank you’re working for, the quality of the team you work in that bank, and your ranking within that team”

Mid-market pe funds will look for different brands to the KKRs and the Blackstones. While all will put a premium on academics, the big funds are primarily interested in people with big banking experience.

“If you go for a UK mid-market fund they might be more interested in hiring from a mid-market advisory house like Rothschild or Lazard,” says Logan Naidu at recruiters the Cornell Partnership.

Economical content

The really key thing about the private equity CV, says Gail McManus at Private Equity Recruitment, is that it communicates the critical information and no more.

“The CV has only one job: to get you an interview,” says Mcmanus. “People will take no more than 30 seconds to read it. If you want to work in private equity, you will need to be able to identify what’s critical to an investment decision. In your CV, therefore, you will need to show that you have an understanding of what’s critical to the investment decision behind hiring you.”

What this amounts to is that the CV should be no longer than 1 page; there should be bullet points; and everything critical to the ‘investment decision,’ should be at the top. Anything not critical should be left out – except mandatory information like addresses (which should be at the bottom).

Therefore, do give your academic qualifications. Don’t go into detail about your modules or thesis. Start with your name, work status (do you have a work permit?) and your education.

Follow this with a list of employers, the dates you worked there and what you did personally. If your employers are little known, you will need to provide a brief explanation, says McManus (Eg. ’10 partner boutique founded by ex-McKinsey partners’). The same applies to international universities – if you attended the top ranked university in Bulgaria, you will need to specify this.

Continuous work record

Private equity funds are looking for a continuous record of employment, says McManus.

“They want dates with months and no gaps,” she says. “Any gaps must be accounted for.”

Deal list

“The deal list can be a bit of a red herring,” says Howell. “Don’t mention every single deal you’ve had a sniff of – only add the ones you had significant involvement in.

“You’ll get wrong footed if you add deals where you only turned up for a week,” he warns.

McManus questions whether a deal list is totally necessary, however. “You don’t need to have a list of transactions with your CV unless you’re very senior,” she says. “Instead, identify some key transactions you’ve worked on and what you’re role was. Be very clear what you did personally.”

The mentality of an investor

It may be hard to demonstrate this on a CV, but Howell says pe funds also want to see some proof that you’re capable of thinking like an investor instead of purely as an advisor. “It helps if you can show that you’ve had your own money at risk. We get some people who’ve been buy to let investors,” he remarks.