Private Equity’s Path to Riches Is Getting Harder to Follow
Bloomberg
Dealmakers are missing out on the personal windfalls they used to score by hitting investing home runs.
Banking has become an increasingly attractive alternative. Many aspiring private equity professionals start out with a two-year stint in investment banking, updating deal pitch decks until the wee hours of the morning. That means banking has long been viewed as a slog to be endured before switching to make real money on the buy side.
Now, however, investment banking is booming. Pay and bonuses appear more predictable than the money in private equity, and regulatory pressure has eased.
Private equity looks like a “lottery ticket” at present, Alan Johnson, founder of the compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates, said. For the first time in a decade or longer, he said, “you’re looking outside from private equity saying, ‘Yeah, maybe I’d be better off at a bank.’”
Johnson Associates forecasts investment-banking bonuses will rise 10% to 15% this year, compared with no growth in middle-market private equity, and a 2.5% to 7.5% increase for those working at large buyout firms. The figures exclude carry.
Bloomberg / September 24, 2026
