The Carlyle Group: Interview with the Head of Human Resources for Europe and MENA

Q: How many people do you employ in Europe?

A: We have around 200 employees in the Europe and Middle East regions. They’re pretty spread out; a little under half are in London.

Q: At what stage of their career do people usually join Carlyle?

A: I’d say the majority of our hiring is done at a more junior level. We tend to grow people through their careers with the firm, but we also make lateral hires on an as-needed basis.

Q: Do you have an MBA intake?

A: Not as a class. We hire MBAs but we don’t have a fixed MBA hiring programme.

Q: If you were hiring MBAs, are there any business schools you’d target?

A: In Europe, we’d certainly look more favourably on graduates from LBS or INSEAD.

Q: Do you also take juniors from investment banks?

A: Exactly. We often hire our most junior professionals when they’re a few years’ into investment banks’ analyst programmes.

Q: How many of these juniors do you typically hire each year in London?

A: Less than 5. We have 70 employees in total in our office here, so our needs aren’t overly large. We tend to hire on as-needed basis when existing employees are promoted.

Q: So you don’t hire from banks at a particular time of the year?

A: No, we hire on an as-needed basis.

Q: Are there any particular banks you target when you’re looking to hire analysts as juniors to work at Carlyle?

A: We like people from bulge bracket banks, but we’re open to people from boutiques as well. Over the past few years we’ve found that some analysts at bulge bracket investment banks haven’t had much deal-orientated experience. Some analysts at boutiques have had a lot more deal experience by comparison.

Q: Are you exclusively interested in analysts with a corporate finance background?

A corporate finance background is preferred. We also have a leveraged finance division, for which we’d be more interested in people with a capital markets background, but when we’re looking for growth capital and investment professionals, a corporate finance background is our preference.

Q: Are you hiring juniors at the moment?

A: Yes, we are recruiting selectively.

Q: Do you have any plans to expand in Europe by opening new offices during 2010?

A: No. We’re not looking to open any additional offices at this point.

Q: Has the profile of your hires changed in recent years? We understand from recruiters that private equity funds are now more interested in people with operational experience, rather than bankers?

At mid and senior levels that’s certainly accurate. A lot of emphasis is being placed on our existing portfolio and maintaining our current investments, as well as generating new ideas. From that perspective, having operational experience is valuable. At junior levels, however, we still have a preference for people who’ve been through the rigour of an investment bank’s analyst programme.

Q: Do you also hire former strategy consultants?

A: It’s certainly a profile that we consider, and we’ve hired strategy consultants on occasion.

Q: Do you like people to have an ACA?

A: It depends upon the function. For investment professionals it’s not necessarily a skillset we would target.

Q: Are there any circumstances in which you’d hire people straight out of a first university degree?

A: No.

Q: Do you offer internships?

A: We haven’t historically, but it’s something we’re looking at.

Q: What kind of recruitment process can a candidate applying to Carlyle expect?

A: We try to be very thoughtful and ensure enough people have met a candidate to form a rounded judgement, so there will be multiple rounds of interviews. Case studies and presentations may form part of the process.

Q: What’s your favourite interview question?

A: There are so many! I always want to know, ‘Why Carlyle?’ and, ‘Why this opportunity?’ I want to see that people aren’t just interested in the brand name. I want to get at their character and how they operate.

Q: What’s the most common reason for you to reject someone?

A: They don’t meet our desired profile. We’re looking for high academic credentials, solid career experience from a credible organisation, and solid deal experience coming into it. We’ve been fortunate to find and recruit model candidates.

Q: Given there are plenty of people who fit that profile in London, but you only take five people a year, what distinguishes a ‘Carlyle person’?

A: Because we’re hiring on a career track, we want people who can grow and develop with the firm. We’re targeting individuals who are the full package.

We invest a lot of time in the interview process in order to get an idea of their work ethic and their desire to be a private equity investor. Our business is very research-focused and involves a lot of due diligence. We want people who like that style of investing and who want to commit to it, but will also work well in our investment teams from a personality standpoint.

We also want people with ideas for investment opportunities and who will present well to investors and management teams. We have a profile that we look for, but it’s also about intrinsic character and finding the future Carlyle leader.