People who chose UMM/MF PE instead of top IB out of undergrad, do you regret your decision?

Authored by: Certified Private Equity Professional - 1st Year AssociateCertified Private Equity Pro

Prospect in IB - Gen

Anonymous

Most Helpful

Can't speak for MF, but I repeat this anecdote on all these threads that I know someone who did MM PE out of H/W undergrad and told me it severely limited their job opportunities when trying to move out of PE. No one knew the MM firm outside PE, so without a banking analyst stint there was really no way to gauge their capability. Did an M7 MBA and now has a different job, but says that likely wouldn't have been necessary if they just did banking first. So if this is not a well-known PE firm banking is probably the move, but this is only 1 data point so YMMV.

Lower Middle Market Companies

Associate 3 in PE - Other

Anonymous

Can't speak for MF, but I repeat this anecdote on all these threads that I know someone who did MM PE out of H/W undergrad and told me it severely limited their job opportunities when trying to move out of PE. No one knew the MM firm outside PE, so without a banking analyst stint there was really no way to gauge their capability. Did an M7 MBA and now has a different job, but says that likely wouldn't have been necessary if they just did banking first. So if this is not a well-known PE firm banking is probably the move, but this is only 1 data point so YMMV.

Really depends on definition of UMM / MM. 9/10 times I'd recommend not going to Graham Partners or Altamont capital partners over top banking groups. However 9/10 times I'd recommend going to Crestview / GTCR over top banking groups. Other firms are in between.

Nothing wrong with Graham Partners / Altamont which are probably great post-college gigs but will be hard to trade up. I highly doubt there are any funds that wouldn't give looks to GTCR or crestview analysts that would give looks to top banking groups.

Authored by: Certified Research Professional - Vice PresidentCertified Research Pro

Intern in IB-M&A

Anonymous

I interned in BB SA this summer and turned down the return for PE - the consensus at my school is that PE analyst programs make sense IF you plan to stay in finance past analyst. Like the poster above said, if you want optionality / are planning to leave finance for tech or something after the analyst stint you should do banking. If you want to go to a HF or at a minimum work as a PE associate, it makes more sense to go straight and build the experience now. I'd also caveat by saying not all programs are created equal - make sure the PE firm has a reasonably well established analyst program or else they won't train you properly. Anecdotally the UMM/MF programs are all good, MM programs can be hit or miss

Intern in IB-M&A

Anonymous

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