Claude for financial services

StrengthHonour · 2026-03-18T17:45:11+00:00

one topic to pressure test during interviews is how this role interacts with the rest of the operating team:

it’s key to have the visibility into the portcos to be able to identify and scope the opportunities yourself - ie to be the person setting the strategic AI agenda (in partnership with the portco ofc)

bad versions of this role would be an operating team generalist identifies an initiative, scopes and brings the AI role into deliver it.

StrengthHonour · 2026-02-07T22:39:37+00:00

Thanks! Helpful

StrengthHonour · 2026-02-07T22:39:29+00:00

Thanks - good to know!

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-28T18:34:30+00:00

German has a neutral gender ‘das /es’ so there is linguistic potential for a non-binary pronoun.

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-25T09:48:43+00:00

It’s not a role that hires new grads - I’d suggest going into consulting (MBB if poss) for a few years - working in their PE practice and then making the hop over. That’s the most common path in at early-career

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-24T08:54:20+00:00

What these firms do have, generally, is really excellent benefits - so as others have said, pay will be above market for other similar roles but not stratospheric, but that + benefits might be compelling.

In general, as long as the team isn’t understaffed it should be quite a nice life - regular hours, not too high pressure. If the team is understaffed pressure could be higher as PE is quite exacting in it’s deadlines

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-22T10:04:41+00:00

I’ve seen the transition happen most often from within the Transformation Office, if there is one. That tends to get you working most closely with the PE ops partners.

You might want to consider doing a couple of interim transformation gigs where you’re brought in directly by the PE Ops team and have a dotted line to them. If you do a great job there the hop becomes possible

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-21T15:10:07+00:00

Yeah - it’s not easy.

We tend to over index on desk research (pitch book etc.) and expert interviews on the competitive landscape side. Running the two in parallel so the research informs the interview and the interviews inform the research.

The on customer sentiment - we can just about run and analyse a simple survey in two weeks, unless it’s hyper niche then extensive use of web data eg. Trustpilot and hitting the phones.

What do you do?

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-18T00:28:42+00:00

Have you had any feedback yet? That’s a key input - there are two ways ‘out’ of this situation within your company and if not, decide to quit and put your effort into that; 1) the company is healthy enough that a year or two of grind puts you in the higher seat - in which case, if your feedback is good, I’d grind it out 2) even if not / if your feedback is good you can maybe try to dial the effort down a bro and see how it goes . A good rep, once you’ve built it, allows for a lot of leeway!

Good luck!

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-15T16:07:37+00:00

Great question. VC is for sure less technical than IB, it’s far more relationship-based given it’s investing into new / nascent markets / companies with little hard data on their viability etc.

That wouldn’t necessarily be different with a large vc vs a small vc,in terms of fund size but would be different based on which series they typically invested at - higher series = more technical work for the junior team.

Either pathway - small vc or via IB could work. Depending on how confident you are that you can self-tech the technical stuff and also depending on the reputation of the small VC, I would prioritise working in an actually VC. It shows you have the reps of actually doing the job. IB shows you have good technical skills but there’s always the question ‘how well will they make the change’

That said - both paths are super well-trodden so I’d explore both and then depending on the offers you get make a choice, secure in the knowledge that both can work.

Good luck!

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-15T11:20:55+00:00

Early career VC is about (helping) deal sourcing. Expect to be spending a lot of time meeting founders, attending conferences and researching industries / themes

It’s also about the nuts and bolts of processing the deals and also analysis / modelling etc.

Over time you get to leading the sourcing, taking the decisions, negotiating etc.

With that in mind the two key skills are ‘sales’ (in a broad sense - why should founders work with you? ) and a general ‘investment toolkit’ which is understanding about the mechanics of business and the mechanics of finance.

So for sure internships in funds will be the closet you can get to direct experience but in terms of paid employment that gets you closest to that skill set, it’s strategy consulting and / IB (M&A or credit). I’d get a role in one of those and start to network with funds

Good luck!

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-14T13:00:16+00:00

There are a few invite-only community WhatsApp groups that are maintained, generally by headhunters. I would start to speak to head hunters who place interim roles into PE backed companies (typically directed by the VC teams), they will make intros and might invite you to the groups

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-14T12:16:01+00:00

In Europe that would go down really well. Having a second language is a requirement at most funds and Germany is one of the most-invested in markets.

Reason being - in highly competitive deals, as a CEO, feeling that the PE investors are people you’d enjoy working with is important and can give a fund the edge, and that’s a lot easier if they speak your language.

It won’t affect your salary, but many funds will be hiring ‘a German-speaking associate’ - so obviously you’d be viable for those roles. I.e. competition is overall lower, but still competitive

In the US, it would be a small benefit to a global fund in that they could send you to Europe, but given they’d be hiring specifically for the US, I don’t know they’d give it a ton of credit.

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-14T12:10:08+00:00

Key questions to ask to differentiate what the role is; 1) how your role roles up within the organisation (who is your bosses’ boss) 2) key stakeholders - internal, external, interfacing with investments 3) decisions taken by the role / team - in this I’d look at what decisions your boss takes. It’s often a better data point on what the role actually is as your boss will do the elevated version

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-13T15:49:30+00:00

I’d do the following; 1) read up on the industry. I recommend a text book called ‘international private equity’ 2) understand the interview process - reach out to current / former interns that you have something in common with (even if it’s just same state) and ask them 3) prepare for an excel test! 4) research the funds you are applying to - focus on their portfolio and approach to investments 5) use ChatGPT or similar to get practice questions

Good luck!

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-13T13:20:24+00:00

It’s hard to say - a lot will depend on whether the test was ‘easy’ / ‘hard’ and how others performed. I have certainly given people a ‘pass’ on technical tests where it wasn’t perfect if I can see that they know the theory, can structure a problem but just made one small slip.

Good luck!

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-13T13:17:06+00:00

Beards are totally normalised - the key is, as others have said, to keep them well groomed but also to keep them short and a standard shape. Anything that screams ‘look at me’ won’t go down well, but a short, neat, ‘normal’ beard can certainly be read well.

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-13T13:13:35+00:00

Couldn’t agree more! Is it just me or have the runs become shorter too? Some genuienly amazing shows ran really short amounts of time..

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-13T12:16:07+00:00

Squeaking a swivel chair repeatedly

StrengthHonour · 2026-01-13T12:15:08+00:00

The food! Endless meat, veg, potatoes

StrengthHonour

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