✨Private Equity by Carrie Sun✨

Genre: Memoir
Pages: 352

📚When we meet Carrie Sun, she can’t shake the feeling that she’s wasting her life. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Carrie excelled in school, graduated early from MIT, and climbed the corporate ladder, all in pursuit of the American dream. But at twenty-nine, she’s left her analyst job, dropped out of an MBA program, and is trapped in an unhappy engagement. So when she gets the rare opportunity to work at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world, she knows she can’t say no. Fourteen interviews later, she’s in.

Carrie is the sole assistant to the firm’s billionaire founder. She manages his work life, becoming the right hand to an investor who can move mountains and markets with a single phone call. Eager to impress, she dives headfirst into the firm’s culture, which values return on time above all else. A luxury-laden world opens up for her, and Carrie learns that money can solve nearly everything.

Playing the game at the highest levels, amid the ultimate winners in our winner-take-all economy, Carrie soon finds her identity swallowed whole by work. With her physical and mental health deteriorating, she begins to rethink what it actually means to waste one’s life.

📝I’d like to say that this was surprising or that the author had a unique experience, but unfortunately, this memoir is one of the many stories revealing the toxic Wall Street/hedge fund environment. Especially considering that the author is writing from a female, POC perspective.

Although the names have been changed, Carbon is Tiger Global, an investment management company, and Boone Prescott is Chase Coleman, the founder.

This was an enlightening read for anyone interested in the world of hedge funds and how money isn’t everything.

💫Thank you @netgalley and @penguinpress for my egalley💫

This is the author's first book, which was fairly evident, but it was also an interesting read. It opened up a world that I hadn't really read about before and seeing how there are absolutely no personal boundaries and it was just eating her alive was hard to read. At first, there were so many points where I wanted her to grow a backbone, but then she REALLY delves deep into her background and you see exactly why she puts up with what she does. The ending is entirely satisfying!

Autobiographical story in which the author details her journey from childhood on into her present day adulthood. Most of her story is focused on the few years she spent working as the assistant to the head of a top investment firm or hedge fund. There are a lot of explanations about all the stuff that goes on in the financial world like what ten baggers are, long/short equity, what LPs are and what AUM means. She really rolls back the curtains on hedge funds; how they contribute to the growing wealth divide, how everything is tilted in the billionaires favor. It’s her story of how she evolves from pleasing her parents, her fiancé, her boss into finally pleasing herself.

This is a very smart memoir about a woman working in the finance world in NYC. While I enjoyed her actual story of how her job consumed her and her dreams, the finance and stocks/funds information was a lot for someone with no background in that world. I think this is more of a niche read-readers with a finance/business background or interest will probably understand it much better than I did. I thought her writing was excellent, and I would read more from Carrie Sun.

Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin Press for this eARC in an exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Carrie Sun, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, is no newbie when it comes to hard work, corporate ladders, and striving for the “American dream”. As the assistant to a billionaire inside one of Wall Street’s top firms, Carrie descends down her own path of self-discovery as she is thrusted into investments, weatlth, and a hustle work culture.

I have absolutely no background in finance, and my knowledge of stocks is minimal, but that did not deter me away from reading this novel. Carrie Sun writes in a way that is matter of fact. So much so, that some things written in her memoir will make you cringe, yet other things are written so beautifully you want to go back and read the sentence again.

I really enjoyed her deep self-reflection woven within the events happening throughout her life. The timeline would often jump back and forth, but I never felt confused. I do wish she would have dropped her unhealthy significant other way earlier than she did, but alas, that’s just part of her story.

I think you’d enjoy this memoir if you are interested in hedge funds, self-discovery journeys, or simply a good memoir. I enjoyed Carrie Sun’s writing greatly, and I would easily pick up something else she’s written just on her writing alone.

Favorite Quote: “Lately I’ve been thinking my most shameful secret is that I knew all along the life I wanted to live, and did not have the courage to live it.”

This is a compelling and skillfully constructed memoir about a sharp and hardworking young woman navigating the haughty, competitive and profit-driven world of finance,
The book centers on two years in the life if Sun—the years she worked for a leading hedge fund in NYC though the narrative travels back and forth to tell more about her childhood and college years and her background as a daughter of immigrants.
The most powerful sections come in the second part of the book as the narrator reflects on work culture and her own tendencies. The author also delivers razor-sharp critiques of extreme wealth and the privilege that comes with it.

Autobiographical story in which the author details her journey from childhood on into her present day adulthood. Most of her story is focused on the few years she spent working as the assistant to the head of a top investment firm or hedge fund. There are a lot of explanations about all the stuff that goes on in the financial world like what ten baggers are, long/short equity, what LPs are and what AUM means. She really rolls back the curtains on hedge funds; how they contribute to the growing wealth divide, how everything is tilted in the billionaires favor. It’s her story of how she evolves from pleasing her parents, her fiancé, her boss into finally pleasing herself.

I am not sure how I ended up with this memoir but glad I read it.

The story of Carrie looking for herself while working for a billionaire in an industry that is cut-throat and challenging was a learning curve for me. The financial world is not something I have the jargon to understand. So I did find that I was doing some research to supplement the story, but that's ok. It could have been read without it.

While a fascinating look at Carrie's personal and professional struggles, it is definitely not for everyone. I think it is a pretty niche book....not sure it is self-help, expose of the financial world or.......?

An eye opening revealing lok at the working in the world of high finance.Carrie Sun shares her experience the tense stressful world of finance her job her life.Raw real an intimate look.The author shares all I found the book unputdownable.#netgalley #penguinpress.

PRIVATE EQUITY by Carrie Sun is a memoir from a young MIT alumna about her career in high finance. If you know anyone in this business, you have heard the stories and the media regularly publishes tales of burnout and the difficult culture, especially for young women in tech and finance There's a strange feeling - both happy and sad and mixed with disbelief - when you finish this book-length memoir. Carrie Sun begins this story when she is in her late 20s and interviewing for a job with an investment firm as a personal assistant to one of the principals. That in itself is an amazing process, conducted over multiple days and requiring nearly a dozen reference calls. Even her recruiter calls it "by far the most intense search he had ever worked on." Honestly, I would have stopped well before she did, but she persists, ultimately struggling with the workload and burns out. This is a tough, tough business and that is the reaction I had when I mentioned this text to people: "oh, it's going to be a hard read." Yes, but it was also looking at a culture or a world that seems glamorous (all those catered lunches!) from the outside and then being better able to appreciate the expectations, the very long hours, and the striving. Kirkus describes PRIVATE EQUITY as "a measured account of how soul-devouring the corporate world is .... a useful cautionary tale...” Vogue named it one of the best books of 2024 so far. Sun dedicates her text to "my mother, my father, and all those who have the courage to quit."

This book was very interesting, especially to see how in many ways the author breaks from some of the most common stereotypes for women in society, starting with the fact that she broke off her engagement over her new job.

Also, the fact that she was not looking for a job that was going to pay for what her education and skills were at the moment. She chose a low-paying job, and it seemed to me Carrie was not necessarily interested in the high dollar she could have gotten.

Mostly focused on her work life, working for a Billionaire, trying to balance her very exigent job with her personal life, and also shows us that sometimes in our work life, no matter how much good money we get paid, all the perks we may receive, if that given job steals your health and inner peace from you, is not worth it.

I also liked the parts where the author shares about her childhood and upbringing.

Thank you Penguin Group and Netgalley for the free advanced copy, in exchange for an honest review.

Private Equity was a wonderful insight into the high finance world. The pressure put on the main character was nuts and I appreciated the raw writing.

Private Equity by Carrie Sun

Billionaire Prescott Boone was a demanding boss. Carrie Sun covers her two years working for Boone’s hedge fund and describes in great detail the everyday grind and perks of being his personal assistant in this memoir which I received by Penguin Press.

Carrie is a talented woman who had a difficult childhood. Some of her early problems have helped her to work for such a taskmaster, where being overworked is the norm. Her 24/7 dedication to Boone allowed him to continue in his over-the-top lifestyle.

Eventually her health was compromised to the point that fancy clothes, spa treatments, restaurants and name dropping personalities weren’t enough to keep her on board. This is a memoir that may appeal to readers who dream of a high powered job. It may also serve as a cautionary tale.

You will learn a great deal about finance in this memoir written by a woman who pushed hard to move up at a hedge fund and then began to question herself and her goals. Push through the early pages which might seem overwhelming with detail and know that this has a human heart within. Sun, the child of immigrants, loses sight of the small things that make life enjoyable and her head is turned by all the gifts and perks of the job. And then she doesn't. It's a familiar tune in fiction (see Devil Wears Prada) but few have bared the financial industry this way. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An interesting read,

The book heavily focuses on Carrie's work life, which I found distracting. The story emphasizes some of the negative aspects of our work/life balance. This book may be more appealing to someone with a finance background.

I would like to express my gratitude to NetGalley and Penguin Press for providing me with an opportunity to read this book and share my honest review.

Even working in the finance sector, I have never quite understood what a hedge fund is, or what it does, and honestly I never expected to care one way or the other. After reading this book, I think I’ve got the basics but I am probably still woefully ignorant. This book would be like the Devil Wears Prada, if Runway were helmed by excessively mediocre white men. While I am sure Boone is a smart man, his downfall comes in what he expects to be done FOR him with little to no effort on his part, little to know thought into what goes into making his life run so smoothly, and little to no thanks to those who make sure it happens. He honestly sounds like one of the most exhausting people on the planet, and yet, he’s not entirely unlikeable. He seems to be trying and my real question walking away from this is, was he actually trying? Or was there some (or a lot of) weaponized incompetence at play?

Carrie’s exploration of what in her childhood led to her being the perfect person for the job as Boone’s ‘do-er’ is absolutely fascinating. I was so enthralled in her journey, learning what it was about her that led her to this moment in her life, and then watching as she slowly unraveled those pieces until she was ready to walk away. Anyone who has worked in a toxic corporate culture will 100% relate, and anyone who grew up in a toxic home will also identify some of themselves with Carrie. I laughed with her, I cried with her, and I quietly rooted for her to just burn it all down (we’ve all been there). Carrie’s writing is so vivid that even the finance jargon I wasn’t super familiar with, I was able to grasp enough to follow. This book is part surviving corporate America, part coming to terms with the fact that there really aren’t good billionaires, even if they’d like to be, and part healing your inner child.

• A compelling memoir offering insights into one woman's self-discovery within a top Wall Street firm, combined with a powerful critique of privilege, extreme wealth, and work culture.

• We follow Carrie Sun, a high-achieving daughter of Chinese immigrants, as she navigates the corporate ladder in pursuit of the American dream. Despite early success, she grapples with a sense of wasting her life and takes a transformative opportunity to work at a prestigious hedge fund.

• Fourteen interviews later, Carrie becomes the sole assistant to the firm's billionaire founder, exposing her to a world of luxury and the realization that money seems to solve almost everything. The narrative unfolds as she immerses herself in a culture that prioritizes efficiency and return on time above all else.

• As Carrie climbs the ranks in the winner-take-all economy, her identity becomes consumed by work. This takes a toll on her physical and mental health, prompting her to reevaluate the true meaning of wasting one's life.

• Private Equity delves into the universal struggle for balance in a world of extremes, addressing issues such as efficiency versus excess, status versus aspiration, power versus fortune.

I expected this memoir to detail the relentless work of a recent grad/finance bro. Instead, this is more of a Devil Wears Prada take on Private Equity with the author being the assistant to the head of a hot PE company. Like Devil, this was unputdownable.

PRIVATE EQUITY
Carrie Sun went through fourteen interviews to land her dream job. She worked directly for one of the founders of the billion dollar company. In her words: “I was born to do this…”
What happens when you reach the ultimate goal? How do you stay on top? How does your personal life match the pride and glory of being number one?
Ms. Sun takes you through her life as her family immigrated from China to the United States. They settled in Michigan.
She excelled in everything. She graduated from MIT with a double major. She landed a winning career in the competitive world of Hedge Fund accounts.
But, something was missing.
At first she thought it was her private life as she and her parents fought about the men in her life. If they thought the man was right, she quickly decided that he wasn’t. If they didn’t like him she loved him more. If they thought her career was dragging her down, she worked harder at it.
Then it all collapsed.
What happens when you hate the career you fought hard to win. The boss you trusted so much isn’t listening to your needs. And your personal life is definitely not what you want.
What if it isn’t what you were “born to do.”
How do you get off the merry-go-round and really think about what’s best for you?
Carrie Sun is a survivor. Her book should be on everyone’s reading list.
Thank you, Danielle Plafsky from Penguin Random House and Netgalley for sending me the book for an honest review.

****Publishing February 13, 2024****

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book starts out with Carrie Sun in the hospital so sick the doctors don’t know she will make it through the night. She had worked so much she ignored taking care of herself.

Carrie Sun writes about her experiences of having high-powered jobs in the financial world, including ending an engagement that just was not working for her. She talks about the pressures and stress and how she wasn’t always mentally happy. This job not only affected her personal life, but her health. How far can a person go before they break? Carrie Sun highlights the importance of managing stress and self-care by showing what happens when you place work above it.

A well written book that explores the ins and outs of working in the financial world! A great book for book clubs and anyone who is interested in the financial world!

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP The Penguin Press, I was provided an ARC of Private Equity by Carrie Sun via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.