A career in private equity can be lucrative, offering a chance at high compensation, along with independence and the opportunity to create value by helping businesses. For many, though, getting a job at a top firm like KKR can seem impossible.
One way to break in is through a summer internship program, which KKR began offering in 2021. Each year, KKR hires a group of college students for a 10-week program that introduces them to the industry. The New York firm receives about 7,000 applications each year for its campus positions, but fewer than 1% chance receive an offer, according to Grace Koo, a managing director and head of talent acquisition on KKR’s human capital team.
A big advantage of nabbing a KKR internship is that it can lead to a full-time analyst role. The entry level position is geared to recent college grads or those with one to two years of experience. The most famous analysts at KKR are Joseph Bae and Scott Nutall, who launched their KKR careers in 1996 in this position, Fortune reported. Bae and Nutall were named KKR co-CEOs in 2021.
“We view our campus hires as future leaders of KKR and some of our most successful partners started as analysts or associates,” Koo said in an email to Fortune.
The best advice for prospective candidates is to do some research. KKR started out as a private equity firm that was founded by cousins Henry Kravis and George Roberts, along with their mentor Jerome Kohlberg, in 1976. The firm is now led by Bae and Nutall. Like many, KKR sought to expand beyond its private equity roots and launched its credit arm in 2004. Credit is currently KKR’s biggest unit with $264.5 billion in assets under management, while private equity is second with $185.3 billion and, coming in third, is real assets, including infrastructure, with $151.5 billion as of June 30, according to the firm's second quarter 2024 earnings. Overall, that makes KKR one of the biggest alternative asset managers in the world with $601 billion AUM. It has offices all over the world and employs about 2500 people.
Applying a year before
KKR’s 10-week summer analyst program typically starts in early June and ends in August. Applying for the role can be confusing. Students are encouraged to apply during the second semester of their sophomore year for a position that will start more than a year later. For example, KKR opened up applications for its 2025 summer analyst class on Jan. 2 of this year. In 2025, the 10-week analyst program will run from June to August.
The interview process for the summer internship is “thoughtful and rigorous,” Koo said. Candidates will typically meet with six to eight executives, including the managing director or partner of the team they’re looking to get hired for, she said. The interview process is also hybrid; KKR uses HireVue, a pre-recorded video interview tool, to question candidates as well as in-person meetings.
Candidates should be prepared to explain why they are interested in working at KKR, how their background can complement the team they are interviewing with, and how they can add value. They should be familiar with KKR’s latest deals and milestone events. Candidates should also “understand how the macro environment is affecting investors and what that might mean for KKR’s businesses,” Koo said.
KKR requires applicants for the summer program to pass an online IQ test, which lasts nearly an hour, one former KKR intern said. The online cognitive assessment is just one data point in a candidate’s overall profile, a KKR spokeswoman said. During the interview portion, the former intern said they spoke to about 10 different executives: three on the phone one week, three during a Zoom the next week and then in-person meetings. Interviews with each exec lasted from 30 minutes to an hour.
All the KKR executives were friendly and most just wanted to know if the applicant understood the business, the ex-intern said. "They mostly talked about why you wanted to work [at KKR],” they said. Some execs did ask if they had experience modeling, which is used to estimate the value of businesses, and if they had taken classes in finance or accounting. (In this case, they did. The intern said they spent a prior summer working in the capital markets unit of an investment bank.)
The former intern’s advice to prospective candidates? Make sure they really want to be at KKR. "They can tell if you aren’t looking to be there,” they said. "[KKR] wants to have you there for a long time. It has to be something you really want to do.”
KKR ended up hiring 50 interns for the summer analyst class, the former KKR intern said. Half were in New York and the rest in California. Once hired, the interns were paired up with a junior and senior mentor, which they would meet with throughout the summer, the ex-KKR exec said. Their work included conducting research on companies, helping compose investment memorandums and summarizing economic data, the person said.
Private equity is a very competitive business with firms often vying against each other to invest in companies. The 10-week intern program was surprisingly congenial. Most of the interns were on different teams so they didn’t fight with each other, the former KKR exec said. “It was pretty cordial,” they said.
KKR is competitive when it comes to pay. Analysts in private equity typically make $180,391 per year in the U.S., with an average salary of $101,467 per year, according to Glassdoor. The estimated pay for an analyst working at Blackstone, the biggest alternative asset manager and a KKR rival, is $135,641 per year, including bonus, Glassdoor said. BX interns, meanwhile, make $88,543. This compares to the salary for KKR analysts at the time, which was about $110,000 a year and prorated for the interns, the former KKR exec said. (Read our story on how to get hired at Blackstone as an analyst here.)
For years, the largest PE firms were notorious for only hiring candidates from the Ivy League. That’s changed. KKR hires dozens of candidates from campuses across the country and isn’t bound by a "core school” concept, Koo said. Most of the interns came from Ivy League schools or top 20 universities, the former KKR exec said. Most had a GPA of 3.6 or more, they said.
KKR also doesn’t want just math or finance majors to apply, KKR’s Koo said. But students that are pursuing degrees in liberal arts, computer science, or engineering are encouraged to learn more about finance through their student clubs and organizations on campus, she said. “It was mainly finance and economics majors,” said the former KKR intern, who had a 3.8 GPA.
Interns that perform well during the 10-week analyst program may get full-time offers depending on business needs, Koo said. Sometimes, even the best candidates don’t get asked back. “I didn’t get an offer,” said the former KKR intern, who graduated recently and now works at another PE firm. About half of the intern’s group got offers, they said. The intern is still happy about their experience at KKR and having such a reputable company on their resume. “It’s a great place to start a career,” they said.
