If you’re a first year analyst in an investment bank in the US and you’re not waiting for the phone to ring, you haven’t been paying attention.

Private equity recruitment season is starting, and it’s earlier than ever before. “It seems like it’s about to start,” says Anthony Keizner, a partner at Odyssey Search Partners in New York. “This would make it the earliest on record.”

The people leading private equity firms are chasing are banks’ new crop of recent graduates, most of whom only joined this July and are still in training. “They don’t hit the desks until August,” says Keizner, “but what I’m hearing is that a number of PE firms have reached out to the first year bankers to meet.”

For the moment, these meetings are just being posited as “coffee chats,” says Keizner, but in the past coffee chats have included modeling tests. The analysts are being recruited to join private equity funds as associates in….fall 2025.

Why are funds chasing banks’ newest recruits when they’re barely out of college? Keizner blames it on FOMO. “What’s clear is that as soon as some firms reach out others will follow suit. No one wants to be seen as missing out.”

The enthusiasm for junior talent is surprising as private equity firms aren’t having the best year. “This shows that contrary to press reports on private equity slowing down, the appetite for associates is stronger than ever,” says Keizner. However, he predicts that private equity firms might struggle to fill their spaces so early and that they’ll need to return for further hiring later in the cycle.