I interviewed at Lafayette Mittelstand Capital (Frankfurt am Main)
Interview
Sehr angenehmes und wertschätzendes Gespräch. Die Gesprächspartner zeigen ehrliches Interesse an persönlichen Erfahrungen und antworten gerne auf offene Fragen. Fachspezifische Fragen werden an den Hauptfokus des Funds angepasst. Dabei geht es vor allem um Bewertungsmethoden, LBO und Herausforderungen im Rahmen von Restrukturierungssituationen.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Warum Private Equity und warum der Fokus auf Restrukturierung und Turnaround?
I interviewed at Lafayette Mittelstand Capital (Frankfurt am Main) in Apr 2023
Interview
Terrible experience. I’ve been applying in the corporate finance industry for over 3 years, and my recent encounter with Lafayette has been overwhelmingly negative. The first-round interview with the Partner was unprofessional, although somewhat aligned with typical PE first-round experiences. However, things took a turn for the worse afterwards. The same Partner called me three weeks later with an offer. We went through all the details meticulously—salary, expectations, role, and more. After 15 minutes, he called back to admit that he had made a mistake and the offer was meant for another candidate. This error is unacceptable, especially coming from an “experienced” private equity professional. While he apologized, he expressed interest in my profile and mentioned setting up a second-round interview. However, he never extended an invitation for such an interview. Perhaps he just mentioned that during the call to save face after the embarrassment of retracting the initial offer. I strongly discourage anyone from considering employment at this firm. The Partner displayed a notable lack of professionalism and readiness for the responsibilities associated with his role.