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Private Credit Interview Prep

Editor

Clara Lindqvist

Editor, Private Credit Interview Prep

Clara Lindqvist writes about private credit careers — the direct lenders, the BDCs, the mid-market specialists, and what an underwriting team is actually testing for when it interviews someone. Almost nobody senior in this industry started here; most came from a leveraged finance desk, a restructuring group or a bank credit committee, and that is still where a lot of the interview questions come from.

The firms themselves are unusually well documented at the top: several of the largest managers are listed and file audited accounts, and the ones running US lending vehicles report their book quarterly, loan by loan. None of that gets you to the number a candidate actually wants — what a specific deal's margin was, what its covenant package required, whether it got marked down. That stays private no matter who is asking, so a guide here states what a filing shows and stops exactly where the filing stops, instead of putting a number on the part nobody discloses.

Areas covered

  • The firms & how a private credit fund actually makes money
  • Strategies: direct lending, mezzanine, special situations, asset-based
  • Breaking in from leveraged finance, restructuring, advisory or a bank desk
  • The interview: covenants, coverage ratios and the downside case
  • Compensation & carry, and why it works nothing like a buyout fund's

“Clara Lindqvist” is the editorial pen name the publication writes under; Private Credit Interview Prep is operated by the company named in our Impressum. How the work is researched and checked is set out on the about page. Reach the desk at info@privatedebtinterview.com.

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