Who Cares About Your Stupid Career?

Looking for a new job this year? There are interesting career opportunities being created by owners of companies who are partnered with private equity. I hire for these unique businesses and have come to see a huge difference compared to corporate recruiting.

It may seem choke-on-your-chai-tea rude to say businesses with private equity on board do not care about your career. If you grasp this difference though, you are more likely to get the job and make them care.

These businesses have owners. The private equity partners are also owners.

Can you put yourself in their shoes and realize how you will impact directly on their personal bank balances? These owners are self-made, ego-driven characters. They have been beaten up; it’s no longer business as usual, rules have changed big time. Owners take risks at major cost to themselves and their families. Now they are risking it all again to make the leap to the global market.

Take Guy Ritchie – Madonna’s ex-husband or plaything; he knew to leap out of England and into the international movie scene. (Nothing like scorned love to make you creative.) Guy came to terms with losing some control and partnered with private equity. Even though he managed to pocket a £50M settlement from his missus, his private equity partners raised $80M to film his meandering, but wryly amusing, Sherlock Holmes movie.

With this partnership, Ritchie was able to bring in talent to appeal to a crowd not familiar with Stephen Fry, Baker Street, or high tea. The scenes between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law were the best part of the movie for me, although I am also rather fond of Rachel McAdams, but preferred her in The Time Traveller’s Wife. Did you know Brad Pitt was the executive producer? I digress.

And that is exactly what I am talking about – when speaking to private equity companies, do not go off on tangents, no matter how delightful and deliciously amusing these may seem. You will appear off target and plain wasteful.

Keep all conversations (phone calls especially) razor-focused on the actions required on the job within the first six months; why you are the one to do this urgent and purpose-filled work. The information to get across is your three-step plan to make the business more money than Brad Pitt could hold above his head.

Working for owner-managed companies is not like the 100 Top Companies with toaster oven prizes at the monthly beer bash. Owners are anxious for results, for action, for hefty pushing the wheel uphill. Leave out indulgent chats about your recent ski trip, why you cannot make a five o’clock appointment because you have to pick up the kids, how your child won a scholarship to Ivey, is visiting Nepal, is on drugs or whatever. You think you are bonding; they are hyper-judging.

If you are from a corporate environment, you will be suspected of having soft hands, telling the boss what she wants to hear, not what she should hear, and going straight to hiring consultants rather than rolling up your own sleeves.

Understand that about 150 other people applied, and there are five who are a better fit. Realize that you can leapfrog them by knowing this one tip: It is not about your stupid career, it is about how you would help the company bring in cash flow.

Companies in which private equity is a part owner really, really care. Have you made a company performance-oriented? How did you contribute to the top line, not the bottom line (and if you don’t understand that, call your favourite business coach.)

Private equity partnered companies work lean but give opportunity to use brains and skills. Former armed forces people can be found in private equity firms, probably because they are used to jumping out of helicopters with people screaming, “Go, go, go!” That is the environment. If that does not appeal, go to the Post Office. I hear they have terrific careers.

Jacoline Loewen is a financial advisor to business owners, the author of Money Magnet: How to Attract Investors to Your Business, and an expert in private equity.