BB IB or MM PE Analyst
Looking for opinions from the community. Is it more beneficial in terms of career if eventual goal is PE to take a MM PE (AUM 3-5bn) analyst offer or a BB IB offer. Would this look any different if it was a UMM/MF PE analyst offer vs BB IB? Thanks.
Would love to hear thoughts. Took an internship for MMPE at a 3-10B fund like OP is talking about over recruiting banking (stopped banking recruiting after May/June ish for the summer). If you can get a MF offer I’d 100% take it out of college, you’re honestly not doing work that is sooo different and breaking in is 10-50x harder even if people are similarly intelligent. But that seems obvious (if LT goal is PE just take that offer), but the MMPE route was a lot harder for me because it’s the same pay as a good BB bank. Associates+ get carry at my firm so I could stay at my company for a long time (some people have). People here are smart too, come from targets just as well, albeit the recruiting isn’t pushed so much as people have to find and network with this company (as I did). For example, I was definitely top 20% competitive in my class and top 5-10/100 on Finance knowledge and technicals prep and could have gotten at least an okay banking offer (but who knows). The associates and analysts at these firms are making similar base+bonus to MMPE without any comparable risk in fund performance. Hopefully when carry kicks in it will be even SLIGHTLY better than BB/EB pay but even then some people I know are pulling 350-400 as Associates and it fucks with my mind hard. But I can’t say I’d be there, just like not everyone gets into Harvard. IDK, FOMO is everywhere. Everyone thinks I’m in a great spot but it’s too early to tell, it’s funny that everyone has FOMO huh. I always liked making my own decisions and going away from the mold which is why I took this route. Never cared about pedigree or school or any of that other than what it facilitates. Sorry if this is long and blocky, I’m typing this in my phone and the WSO app sucks.
same pay as a good MM/BB bank, not as high as Centerview or some EB’s even**
So - my point is that it’s way more ambiguous and it’s an absolutely GREAT thing to take removed from all the minute variations people have in expectations (aw I got into Wharton but I wanted to go to Harvard- STFU nerd!!!). It won’t compare to the ‘golden’ path and you remove yourself from that path pretty much (IB->PE->HF). But how many people go that route anyway. MMPE you can make great pay in any city as well, and the work is definitely better in terms of the “5-10% non bitch analyst being your upper level slave” so it’s that lining that stimulates critical thinking and making intelligent decisions. It’s a really hard decision to be away from everyone else that you know but again, the people on the other side of the coin think you are in so much of a better position (for whatever reason, again FOMO). The biggest thing is you perceivable lose out on some opportunities but who cares if you’re at a good firm that does well through poor economic times. Anyway hope you can pick apart some value in my long ass posts.
Any update here on how things are going?
The fuck’s wrong with you people. Unless you plan on fucking up on the job so bad that you’ll be blacklisted at all PE firms, there’s no better way to get into PE than to... fucking accepting a PE offer. But if you’d rather slave-off editing decks all night long, go for IB and enjoy the challenge of having to recruit against every other top bucket analysts for another PE offer down the road. If UMM PE is your ultimate goal, get a top MBA after your analyst years in PE.
I'll post my take. I was a SA at an EB and decided to take the MM PE analyst route. My fund has ~10B AUM. Work is so so so much more interesting and even though in on cycle you won't get the looks you want I've gotten plenty of options in off cycle
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