Morning Coffee: Graduates joining banks on $120k salaries chased by firms paying $320k before they start. Moelis cancels Jonathan Kaye

efinancialcareers.com:

A few years ago,private equity firms collectively agreed to give recent graduates a bit of breathing space before they tried to hire them from their jobs in banks. That agreement seems to have lapsed.

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Graduates joining this year's analyst class don't arrive in banks until July, but Business Insider reports that private equity firms like Apollo, KKR and Clayton Dubulier & Rice are already trying to hire them. Recruitment reportedly started Monday evening. The firms concerned didn't confirm this. 

In previous years, recruitment by top private equity firms has involved interviewing between 1am and 8am and has meant that junior bankers, who also had day jobs, were expected to stay up all night being quizzed about leveraged buyouts. This year, they're not actually doing their day jobs, so presumably it's more sedate. However, Business Insider says there's some chaos because incoming junior bankers invited to private equity interviews in New York aren't necessarily in the city already. 

Moving from banking to private equity can be advantageous. Private equity jobs are seen as being more interesting than banking because you're a buyer and not an adviser and once you get carried interest, the pay can be huge. Heidrick and Struggles says the biggest private equity fundspay their associates $320k in America, or $375k plus carry (although not all juniors get carried interest). First year banking analysts get salaries of around $120k and total packages of $200k or less. 

There's growing realization, though, that working in private equity may not be all that. The hours aren't necessarily better than banking, and private equity firms like Apollo have a reputation for being gruelling