MF PE from non-US background
I’m an AN1 at GS/MS/JPM in Australia, with a goal of making it to UMM/MF PE in NYC or similar. At the moment my best chances of making it to NYC are as an AN2/3 and transferring offices internally. From what I can tell on the typical PE timeline, that seems too late to recruit for a lot of these funds. So just want to seek some advice on anyone who’s trodden this path or knows the typical timeline if any of these funds recruit internationally from banks, or if it’s best to just do my time in banking and hope for an interview once I’m in the US, or if I’m just screwed either way for eventually getting a seat at the PE table.
What about going to one of the American PE offices in Australia and trying to move internally to NY in a few years? Not sure how quickly you are trying to get to NYC, but if you do 2-3 years at the Australia location most firms (outside of BX perhaps) will move you to NY if you are a good worker and express an interest.
The issue with moving to NYC is you would require sponsorship for the next role. While Australia has a simple work visa in the US, most PE firms do not sponsor as a hard and fast rule even if you have an easy visa (Canadians also face this issue). So I would say extremely difficult to recruit once in the US as you are both a bit late and also considered an international to these firms.
Realistically, the best choice for doing this is going to be with either of Brookfield, Bain, TPG or KKR - they're the MFs that have the largest domestic presence and deal volume, and the only funds where you've got a decent shot at being sent to NYC over HK or London. BX are fairly new in the local market and as a result, are trying quite hard to build out their Sydney operations and as such, are unlikely to send a top performer offshore, where they've already got an established talent pool and pipeline.
Unlike overseas, the local scene does hiring fairly ad hoc, with only BX having a summer internship program (PERE only iirc), and because of that, tend to try their best to cling on to good talent when they have it. The other thing you have to keep in mind is that they have little incentive to send an Australian to the US when you have no real leverage in that situation. On the one hand, they can hire one of the thousands of IB analysts that are applying that are already in NYC, with working rights, local connections, and knowledge of the local market, or on the other hand, they can send you, someone presumably lacking most or all of those characteristics, offshore. If they refuse to do so, you don't really have much leverage in the situation other than threatening to leave to a competitor, which isn't much of a threat given how coveted roles at MFs are in Sydney and how replaceable you are.
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