Private Equity’s Race to Poach Junior Bankers Finds Its Limit

The race to poach freshly minted bankers from Wall Street’s biggest firms has finally reached its limit.

Private equity shops looking to fill out their 2024 associate classes were forced to do a second round of recruiting this year after initial efforts fell short, according to an analysis by recruiter Odyssey Search Partners.

Eager to beat competitors, many buyout shops started reaching out to banks’ first-year trainees just a few weeks after they began work in 2022. But the newly arrived dealmakers, dubbed analysts, weren’t quite ready to boast about their prowess. Some had yet to complete a single deal. ...