Hello all,
I'm currently an electrical engineer (consulting) and am going to Darden for my MBA soon. I'm a future year scholar so I am deferring a couple of years. At some point in my career I want to go into PE, more specifically, I want to learn about deal structuring and M&A.
My reasoning for this switch is that I want to utilize both quant and verbal abilities in my job. Right now, most of the emphasis in my job is on my quant ability. My understanding is that PE, like consulting, has an emphasis on both, or at least emphasizes verbal more than engineering roles do. I am objectively more talented in verbal (reading, writing, communication) than I am in quant, and I also want a role where I am working with more people more often (engineering consulting you practically work in a vacuum besides interfacing with clients through email.)
My understanding is that Darden doesn't place PE, but is great for consulting, which I've heard is a common inroad (at least MBB) to PE.
A couple of questions:
1) Would it be a better use of my time during my deferral period to prepare a resume that will make me more likely to place MBB (and by proxy PE) post-MBA than to continue in my role as an electrical engineer?
2) More broadly, does anyone have any advice for a PE aspirant in this situation?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
From what I've typically seen, the paths for people with no pre-MBA PE experience to enter PE post-MBA are as follows:
1. Go to MBB then join a PE firm's internal consulting group ('value creation team') which basically helps implement different initiatives at portfolio companies. This can span implementing a new IT system, re-evaluating pricing structure, revamping go-to-market strategy, optimizing manufacturing footprint, and much more. At KKR this group is known as KKR Capstone - plenty online about this type of team's function if you're interested in this path.
2. Go to IB then join a PE firm in a capital markets, financing, or similar role. This typically happens at a more senior level - I've seen this happen where a IB MD comes across and may bring a VP or two along with him/her.
3. Go to IB then join a LMM PE firm in an investing role after a few years. You may have to be opportunistic here but could potentially try to leverage some of your background in electrical engineering + finance skills you pick up as an IB associate to try and join a lower middle market (LMM) PE firm.
These paths are all non-traditional and you'll have to be savvy, network a good deal, and have some good luck. I would think about what type of work interests you the most and recruit for either IB or consulting during your MBA. If your interests are more operational, I'd go consulting. If your interests are more financial / deal-making, I'd go banking.
Whether you think you'll do banking or consulting after MBA, the skillsets you should try to pick up or at least touch during your deferral period should be pretty similar. If you're a professional electrical engineer, try to be involved with some projects at work that involve strategy, pricing, product management, cost engineering, marketing, etc. In other words, try to 'zoom out' and get a better sense of the 'why' and 'how' of the business you're in even if your day job involves something very technical, like designing FPGAs. Hope this helps a bit.
Thank you for your response.
Based on Darden's placements in MBB, it sounds like option 1 is the most feasible for me at the moment. Breaking into IB post-darden seems less feasible for two reasons:
1) Darden doesn't place IB as well as consulting
2) The skills I employ as an electrical engineer transfer are more marketable to MBB and consulting firms in general than to IB (IB is more finance hard-skills focused)
If either of these assumptions are wrong/off let me know, but options two and three that you mention above seem less feasible in light of the above information.
So assuming I stick with Darden, the best route into deal-making seems to be MBB post-darden then internal consulting group at a PE firm with possibility of a role more directly focused on deal making eventually. I am interested in both operations and deal-making. I own a significant portion of the firm I currently work for so I am in operations on a daily basis (which I can use to bolster my chances at landing MBB) but I hardly touch financial side of things, which will hinder the possibility of landing a role in IB. I see value in being both in operations/consulting and deal-making but correct me if you think I should focus on one vs the other from the outset.
I think Darden does a decent job with IB. above post makes sense but I think a far more likely scenario out of three mentioned is to become an IB associate at a solid place (bulge bracket or well known banks) and after spending 2 years (or three years, but before becoming a VP), join a LMM shop as a first year associate (so most likely you might be like 6-7 years older). This is still not easy but I have seen enough cases. I have seen far less post MBA consulting then PE. You already know this but engineer, Darden, then directly to PE is not going to work.
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