Buyside after one year - What will I miss?

My goal since graduating has been to eventually earn a PE job. Long story short, I can't wait to get out of banking. 100+ hour weeks, no vacation days, poor treatment, and people I frankly don't like working with. My experience has been different from friends at other shops (obviously in a negative way), which partly plays into my reasoning for leaving early.

I was with a BB for ~2 years in a MO role and leveraged the brand name and experience into a reputable MM Investment Bank. I'm in an industry group that I'm not really a fan of, but the group is tops at what they do in the middle market. Despite my limited experience thus far my I-banking experience has yielded me numerous opportunities at various boutique and middle market PE shops.

I have one main concern:

If I leave after one year and go straight to PE instead of another bank, what will I miss/not learn from not having stayed the full analyst stint? Will I be able to make up for that (learn it on the job) when I'm on the other side?

Can anyone provide any insight into this concern?

 

Networking with firms that I previously had made contact with (pre-banking) and using connections I've made over the past 3 years. I've actually had a pretty successful cold call rate as well. I usually start off by saying I know it's a very tough market right now and that I'm not looking for anything immediate, but would love to meet for a cup of coffee to catch up or come by and introduce myself to the firm. This approach doesn't let them just blow me off and say they are not hiring and for the companies I already have a connection with, its been a great way to reconnect and find out if the firm is a good fit for me. Are you currently trying to do the same thing?

 
Best Response
SchruteFarms:
Networking with firms that I previously had made contact with (pre-banking) and using connections I've made over the past 3 years. I've actually had a pretty successful cold call rate as well. I usually start off by saying I know it's a very tough market right now and that I'm not looking for anything immediate, but would love to meet for a cup of coffee to catch up or come by and introduce myself to the firm. This approach doesn't let them just blow me off and say they are not hiring and for the companies I already have a connection with, its been a great way to reconnect and find out if the firm is a good fit for me. Are you currently trying to do the same thing?

Makes sense. I'm definitely interested in pursuing the same path. Although, I'm not entirely sure I want to even go the PE route because I feel like it will just be banking minus a few hours. I am more interested in the start-up and VC route.

Good luck man, and my opinion is that after a year pursuing something else is totally fine assuming that's closer to what ultimately holds your interest/passion.

 

One thing you sacrifice if you leave early: you will lose out on getting recommendations from your banking co-workers if you choose to apply to business schools.

CompBanker’s Career Guidance Services: https://www.rossettiadvisors.com/
 

well, you'll miss out on a few hundred comps and probably a few dozen pitchbooks...

in all honesty, what you get 'out' of banking is highly variable and depends on luck a lot of the time. While there is a 'baseline' experience - e.g. learning how to read financial statements, learning about how to run an auction process, etc, the quality of your time in banking is really determined by the people you work with and the projects you work on. If you don't think there's anything left at your MM advisory shop (e.g. nothing in the pipeline, coworkers uninspiring) then you're not going to miss out on much.

 

CompBanker - Just want to say thank you for all your contributions to the forums. Your advice continues to have a meaningful impact on my career development and I truly appreciate all the help you've provided.

To your point, my shop is very inward focused. They hate people leaving for any reason and are strong proponents of promoting from within. I highly doubt they would be willing to give me a recommendation for PE let alone business school. Its sad and realize the challenges associated with that, but these are the cards I'm playing with.

aranxon - thank you for your comments. I hold the same opinion, although it should be noted that we do have a strong pipeline. I wouldn't be leaving because of lack of deal flow (I'm actually swamped heading into 2011) but rather my desire to be on the other side of table with (hopefully) better hours and more meaningful work.

 

As someone who had these similar thoughts in my BB (top bank, top group), I am very happy that I ended up staying there for my two years. In all reality and no offense, a shop that is willing to look at you with half a year of experience and subsequent to a phone call is not a shop that is worth running to and losing connections and relationships over. Analysts are currently being reached out to by headhunters regarding buyside jobs for summer 2012 with the exception of a few HF's and VC's which may be for summer 11 or immediate hire. You should be focused on modeling in your current job, and reach out to headhunters (if they are not reaching out to you, network to get contact info) to see what they have to offer. I see many people run off to any mom and pop PE or VC shop just because they are brainwashed into thinking its "better than banking" only to find out their fund sucks and no one cares about it in the finance world. Also, it seems like you should be doing some more research on these jobs themselves. If you think you don't want to go into PE because it's banking with a few less hours, my previous statement is evident. Many times in PE you are doing some great work (ie. advanced modeling, managing pretty significant processes and many times teams of bankers that used to be senior to you :), working with serious players that are at the top of the Wall Street game), while in VC you are doing crap (the same industry bullshit you deal with in banking because these companies are start ups with no cap structure to analyze and no real projections to base anything off of). Not saying it's always like that, but just saying you need to learn a little more about it. Hope I was helpful, best of luck.

 

Many (most?) hedge funds hire for immediate start positions. PE generally wants you to complete your two years so that you can really gain relevant transaction experience before you join.

I'm not sure I understand the rush to leave though. Being a 2nd year analyst with an offer in-hand is actually pretty great. Still get paid well, no real responsibilities and noticeably fewer hours than your 1st year counterparts. Meanwhile, you're still gaining experience that'll help you hit the ground running at your next gig. Disregard this if your group culture is toxic.

 

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